Kandivali man asks for Rs 1 crore for serving him non-veg pizza, gets arrested

A 26-year-old unemployed MBA graduate was arrested for attempting to extort money from a pizza chain in Kandivli on Thursday.

A resident of Ekta Nagar, Kandivli (W), Anil Ozha had placed an online order for two ‘vegetarian’ and two ‘non-vegetarian’ pizzas from Pizza Hut. Ozha claimed that since the delivery boxes were not labelled, he unknowingly ate a pizza with meat.

He then filed a complaint on the online portal of the company. Upon receiving the complaint, the company officials got in touch with him and told him that the pizza boxes are bound to have a label on it.

Denying the company’s claims, Ozha repeatedly kept calling the branch manager of the outlet and demanded Rs 1 crore as ‘compensation for hurting his religious sentiments’. When he was told that his demands were unreasonable, Ozha threatened to approach the press and spread the information on social media.

According to the police, the manager, Prashant Tambe met with Ozha after which he negotiated the amount to Rs 50 lakh and then to Rs 10 lakh. Tambe later agreed to pay Rs 25,000 as a first instalment.

Meanwhile, Tambe approached the Kandivli police and informed them about Ozha’s blackmail attempt. He also filed a complaint against him for an attempt to extortion.

The police then laid a trap and arrested Ozha red-handedly when he came to collect the money.