On Monday (November 20), the Mumbai Police booked a case against Riyaz Bhati who is closely associated with underworld don Chhota Shakeel. The case against Bhati has been booked under sections 195 (A), 506 (2), and 34 of IPC (Fabricating of false evidence, Criminal intimidation, Criminal conduct with common intention) for threatening a witness in an extortion case.
Bhati is currently lodged in jail in another extortion case. He is believed to have threatened the witness from the jail.
The complainant asserted that from June 2022 to November 4, 2023, Bhati and his close associates threatened him and told him not to go to court to testify and that if he did, he should testify in favor of Bhati. The complainant stated that Bhati’s associates threatened to kill him.
Based on the complaint, the Khar police filed a case against the accused Riyaz Bhati, his close relatives, and began an investigation.
Bhati is also believed to be a close aide to Mumbai underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim and the dreaded criminal Munna Yadav. However, he had denied being associated with Ibrahim in the year 2016. He was arrested in the Andheri area of Mumbai by the Mumbai Crime Branch’s Anti-Extortion Cell in connection with an extortion case filed at Mumbai’s Goregaon Police station.
According to the reports, Bhati was charged in an extortion case in the FIR filed against former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. “Riyaz Bhati’s name is also mentioned in the same FIR which has been registered against Param Bir Singh in an extortion case”, the police had said.
Police maintained that Bhati used to collect money from bars, pubs, and restaurant owners and send it to suspended Mumbai Police officer Sachin Waze. Earlier, the estranged wife of Riyaz Bhati, Rehnuma had filed a complaint in Mumbai’s Santacruz police station alleging rape and molestation by Riyaz.
It is important to note that Bhati calls himself a businessman. However, he is a criminal and has connections with Mumbai underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim, the dreaded criminal Munna Yadav, and also underworld don Chhota Shakeel.
In 2021, NCP leader Nawab Malik made allegations against BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis saying that he had connections with Riyaz Bhati. However, the BJP leader had slammed Malik and termed the allegations as baseless.