HYDERABAD: Dabeerpura police on Monday arrested a 57-year-old rowdy-sheeter for allegedly attempting to extort Rs 50 lakh from a city-based builder by threatening to implicate him in false criminal cases.
The accused, Habeeb Ali Baghdadi, a businessman from King Koti and a rowdy-sheeter registered at Abids police station, was arrested following a complaint by a builder from Azampura who is constructing a building at Kaladera in Malakpet.
According to police, Baghdadi had been harassing and threatening the builder for several months while demanding Rs 50 lakh. He allegedly warned that serious criminal cases would be registered against the builder if the demand was not met.
His modus operandi was to identify suspected building violations, photograph the structures and post the images on Facebook while tagging departments such as GHMC, the Income Tax department, and the offices of the chief minister and DGP. He would then blackmail property owners, demanding money and threatening demolition-related complaints, the police added.