A chronic and compulsive liar, Thakkar collectively cheated various landlords of Rs 3 lakh by threatening to lodge complaints in court and with the police if they failed to submit to her blackmail. She would take a flat on rent for 11 months on leave and licence basis after paying Rs 25,000 as deposit and agreeing to pay Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500 as monthly rent. However, instead of paying the rent, she would ask the landlord to deduct the amount from her deposit. Then, at the end of 11 months, she would demand that the landlord return theentire deposit. Resistance was always met with a threat to lodge a cheating complaint. In most cases, the landlords succumbed.

When the landlord failed to `cooperate', Thakkar would file an application to lodge a complaint with the local police. When police found her complaint baseless, Thakkar would file a complaint against the investigating officer for `colluding with' the accused. Rejection of this application would only encourage the brazen woman to approach the higher authorities, and so on, till the deceit became all encompassing and Thakkar had only Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde left to approach. No wonder police officers in both commissionerates avoided Thakkar like the plague.

It was an extortion complaint lodged by a landlord, Lata Hiren Dholakia, that finally did her in. When Vartak Nagar police in Thane questioned her, she claimed that Dholkia had almost killed her son, Ashok Vasant Thakkar, besides refusing to return her deposit. She also alleged that Dholakia had stolen Rs 4,000 fromher house. Senior Police Inspector Subhash Patil finally arrested Thakkar for extortion and blackmailing on September 14. However, the moment she was released on bail, Thakkar filed an application against Patil with the Thane police commissioner, claiming that the senior inspector had acted with bias!

The Crime Branch, which was asked to conduct its own investigation, also fell victim to Thakkar's deceitful ways. When the investigating officer dispatched a police head constable to bring Thakkar in for interrogation, she tried to trick her way out of the sticky situation - by alleging that the head constable stole Rs 75,000 and 10 tolas of gold from her living room. Cross-examination confirmed the inevitable - that Thakkar had lied yet again.

ACP Lalit Godbole, who subsequently took over the case from the Crime Branch, told Express Newsline that he has encountered several extortionists including notorious goons from the underworld, but never one as wily as Indira Thakkar.