Udupi: Man arrested for extortion racket linked to gangster Hemanth Poojari

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Oct 23, 2026: Police have arrested a man accused of collaborating with underworld gangster Hemanth Poojari to threaten businessmen and prominent personalities in Udupi district and extort money from them.

The arrested accused has been identified as Suresh Amin (38), a resident of Batrathota House in Ermalu Bada village.

According to police, gangster Hemanth Poojari had allegedly been targeting businessmen and prominent personalities in Udupi district through phone calls, demanding crores of rupees and threatening to kill them if they failed to pay. In this connection, eight cases had been registered — five at Padubidri Police Station and one each at Shirva, Kaup and Manipal police stations.

During the investigation, police found that Suresh Amin had allegedly provided Hemanth Poojari with mobile phone numbers and other information about the businessmen and prominent personalities who were targeted in the cases. Amin was taken into custody, questioned and subsequently arrested.

Technical evidence revealed that, in one of the cases, Amin and Poojari had allegedly conspired to murder a businessman after he refused to pay the demanded amount and stopped answering phone calls.

Police said Hemanth Poojari had transferred Rs 5 lakh to Suresh Amin in connection with the crime. After Amin spent part of the amount, police seized the remaining Rs 4.13 lakh.

The accused was produced before a court in Udupi and remanded to judicial custody. As police suspect that more people may be involved in the racket, further investigation is being conducted after taking the accused into police custody, Superintendent of Police Hariram Shankar said.