Mukesh Ambani

Ahmedabad, May 21: A lawyer and an associate have been arrested on the charge of trying to extort Rs 50 lakh from Reliance Industries Limited.

Advocate Jayendra Shah and Dilip Motwani had allegedly asked for the money as the price for withdrawing their court petition objecting to the merger of Reliance Industries with group company Reliance Petroleum.

The Ahmedabad crime branch arrested the two accused yesterday after a Reliance representative filed a complaint.

A crime branch official said the accused were demanding Rs 50 lakh for withdrawing their petitions, filed in Bombay High Court after the respective boards of directors approved the merger of the two Mukesh Ambani-owned companies.

The accused were produced in court and remanded in police custody for two days, crime branch inspector Tarun Barot said.

Reliance Industries sources said Shah had sent a written complaint against the merger to various ministries, the registrar of companies and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to try and raise hurdles before the deal.

After the boards approved the merger, the mandatory extraordinary shareholders’ general meeting also gave the go-ahead.

A Reliance statement said Shah had been interviewed by the company some 20 years ago but didn’t get a job.

According to the statement, Shah had initially asked for Rs 5 lakh to withdraw his petition. Later, it alleged, Motwani told Reliance Industries officials over the phone that the company must pay 10 times more, that is, Rs 50 lakh.

Shah then allegedly threatened Reliance Industries that its officials would be framed in false criminal cases and could even be “eliminated”.

The accused then demanded the immediate release of Rs 10 lakh, Reliance sources said.

Following the phone call, a company representative lodged a complaint with the crime branch in Ahmedabad.

The police have filed charges under Sections 384 (extortion), 387 (attempting to put a person in fear of death in order to extort money) and 506(2), which relates to criminal intimidation, of the Indian Penal Code.

A laptop, mobile phones and some documents have been seized from the accused, crime branch sources said.

They added that the data from the laptop and mobile phones could lead investigators to others who could be involved in the case.

A PTI report said police suspected professional rivalry in the case.

According to the agency report, Shah, during his phone calls to Reliance Industries officials, would say he had been assigned the job by some Mumbai-based associates and would need to consult them before withdrawing his petition objecting to the merger.