MBA graduate arrested for trying to defame pizza outlet, extort money

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Mumbai: The Kandivali Police has arrested a management graduate for threatening a pizza outlet staff and seeking to extort money from them, reports said.

26-year-old Anil Oza, an MBA, was produced before a court on Thursday and sent to police custody.

Oza told police during interrogation that he decided to extort money from the pizza outlet after reading a news piece about an incident wherein a company was forced to pay a huge compensation to a consumer following a complaint.

As part of the game plan, Oza ordered four pizzas from a Charkop outlet.

After a few days, he complained to the pizza company via e-mail that the pizzas were delivered in boxes that had neither a green nor a red mark to indicate whether these were non-veg or veg food items. He alleged in the e-mail that he had received non-veg pizzas.

Claiming his religious sentiments were hurt, Oza demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore from the outlet failing which he threatened to defame them on social media.

During negotiations, Oza first reduced his compensation demand to Rs 50 lakh and then to Rs 10 lakh.

The outlet staff, who had complained to the police, agreed to pay Oza Rs 25,000 as first installment.

Police inspector Sudhir Dalvi said they then laid a trap to nab Oza while accepting the money.