Mumbai, Aug 15 (PTI) The GRP here has invoked the stringent MCOCA against a man accused of extortion and possessing assets worth crores, and attached several of his properties, a police official said on Sunday.

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His wife and six other associates have also been booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), he said.

The accused, Santosh Kumar Singh alias Bablu Thakur, was allegedly involved in extorting money from hawkers at railway stations and he would beat and attack them with sharp weapons if they refused to pay the money, the official said.

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He has properties worth crores, including two expensive cars and a motorcycle, 10 houses in the city, two land plots at his native place in Uttar Pradesh, five acre agricultural land, 1.5 kg gold, insurance policies worth around Rs 10 lakh and cash in about 30 bank accounts, the official said.

The accused was running the extortion racket at Dadar, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Byculla and Kurla railway stations here as well as stations in neighbouring Thane city and Kalyan town, the official said.

Thakur and his wife Rita Singh have multiple cases registered against them and many of them are still pending in court, Dadar Government Railway Police's (GRP) senior inspector Dnyaneshwar Katkar said.

"We have invoked the MCOCA against Thakur, his wife and six other associates and attached their properties. The last case was registered against them under Sections 387 (extortion) and 392 (robbery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and further investigation is underway,” the official said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)