Mumbai, 5 June

The Navi Mumbai police have arrested a student from Assam for allegedly demanding Rs 1 crore from rapper Mohammad Bilal Shaikh, popular as Emiway Bantai, and making death threats, an official said on Wednesday.

According to the NRI Coastal police, the accused, Arulv Rameshkumar Alohi, 18, is a second-year Commerce student in Assam’s Sonitpur district. He was taken into custody recently after police tracked him down from his digital footprints, the official said.

Police have also learnt that the youngster had sent similar threat messages to other singers in the past. Alohi told the police that he wanted to make some quick money and become famous through this method, he said.

According to the police, Emiway’s office had received multiple WhatsApp messages from an unknown mobile number, demanding Rs 1 crore. Claiming association with gangsters like Lawrence Bishnoi, Goldy Brar and Rohit Gadara, the sender threatened to “kill” the rapper if he did not pay up.

The threat was issued to Emiway after he released a song dedicated to the late singer Sidhu Moosewala.

“While the sender had deleted the messages, the rapper’s office had taken their screenshots. Based on those screenshots, we registered an FIR and subsequently arrested Alohi,” the official added.