Three persons were arrested for posing as RTI activists and allegedly extorting money from a contractor carrying out civil works for the local municipal corporation, police said Saturday.
An official said that accused Arif Iraqi Nawaz Mohammad Mustafa, Shabbir Khan and Shoukat Mulani allegedly threatened to file Right to Information pleas with the Thane Municipal Corporation to harass and extort money from a builder in Mumbra township here.
The builder, in his complaint to the police, claimed that the three demanded Rs 5 lakh as extortion money on various occasions since August 2016 after threatening him.
The builder told police that he had also paid the accused Rs 3 lakh on one occasion.
Following a complaint, Mumbra police arrested the three persons and charged them under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, he said.