By IANS,
Kathmandu : Mumbai gangster Uday Shetty, who hit the headlines in India in 2003 after police said he was involved in an extortion case that embroiled Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty’s family, was brought out before the media by Nepal police here, 72 hours after he was arrested and reportedly kept in a secret location.
Along with the 34-year-old Uday, who comes from Kalyan in Maharashtra’s Thane district near Mumbai, police also named four other Nepali members of a kidnapping gang who have been behind over 50 abductions.
Shetty was caught reportedly after a tip-off from a fellow gang member who turned police informer in the hope the Indian would be killed in a police “encounter” so that he could pocket the ransom money.
Shetty attained notoriety six years ago for allegedly threatening a Gujarat-based industrialist on behalf of the parents of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.
Police paraded him before the media here Friday after IANS reported the arrest.
Police said they are looking for at least four more members of the gang.
Shetty, who worked under Mumbai gang lord Fazl-ur-Rahman, had fled India after the extortion case in 2003. The two had allegedly called up Pankaj Agarwal, owner of Praful Sarees in Surat, asking him to pay money to Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty’s family or face action.
The actor’s family were claiming that in 1998 Shilpa had modelled for Praful Sarees but was not paid the entire amount due to her. Shilpa’s parents have consistently denied that they ever threatened Agarwal either directly or indirectly.
The case is still pending in India.
It remains to be seen if Mumbai police would also like to question Shetty.
After coming to Nepal, Shetty joined a gang of kidnappers led by Nepali kidnap kingpin Amar Tandon and was allegedly involved in a string of abductions in Nepal. After Tandon’s arrest last year, Nepal police said Shetty led the gang and masterminded over a dozen recent kidnappings in Nepal.