2009 Vikhroli Firing Case: Kumar Pillai returned to extortion to claim share in redevelopment pie, says police

After Pillai moved out of the country to Hong Kong sometime in 1997, said the officer, he got into garments and then electronics business. Eventually, he moved to purchasing diamonds from Africa and selling them in China. “While his business was doing well, he was hearing about the boom in real estate redevelopment market from his family and friends in Vikhroli with whom he was constantly in touch,” said the officer.

“The lure of making big money was too much for him to resist. He regrouped his gang in Mumbai and started making extortion calls to developers undertaking work in the eastern suburbs. He also struck a deal with Ashwin Naik that he would stick to the eastern suburbs, while Naik could carry out extortion in the central region,” the officer said. He added, “Initially, no one was willing to pay extortion money to Pillai since no one knew him anymore. In order to create a reign of terror again, he ordered three extortion-related shootouts in the city. The Jayanti Shah shootout was the first… We will be filing chargesheets in the other two cases soon.”

Pillai is currently behind the bars.

The firing on Shah had taken place on November 9, 2009, when the builder was seated in his office, Laxmi Corporation, near Vikhroli railway station. A man in his early 30s entered the office, fired a few rounds and fled. Shah, who survived the attack, had later told the Vikhroli police that he had been receiving extortion calls from Pillai demanding Rs 50 lakh, which he had refused to pay.

mohamed.thaver@expressindia.com