Anti-Extortion Cell arrests Ashwin Naik gang's henchman and three others for extorting Rs 10 lakh from Nikhil Rane

City builder Nikhil Raneu00a0 succumbed to his injuries a week after he was shot outside his office at Jangli Maharaj Road. While there was no major breakthrough in the case while he was battling for life, the city's anti-extortion cell yesterday nabbed four criminals, including Ashwin Naik gang's henchman Sandip Dicholkar, on charges of extorting Rs 10 lakh from Rane.

Based on Rane's wife Ashwini's statement, crime branch's anti-extortion cell arrested Sandip Dicholkar (42), Dhanajay Dixit (35), Sandip Sangle (30), Dipak Borkar (37). The accused have been remanded to police custody till December 3.

According to Ashwini, those arrested had demanded money for the settlement of a plot of land that Rane had bought in Sus Gaon from a local farmer Uttam Sasne. But Rane later discovered that the plot was already sold to someone else. And since he wanted to settle the land deal, he coughed up Rs 10 lakh after he was threatened.

Anti-Extortion Cell PI Kishor Jadhav, who's investigating the case, said, "Borkar and Dixit had extorted Rs 10 lakh at Dicholkar's behest on October 15, 2009." He added, "We are investigating if the arrested four had any role in shootout incident."