The Khar police have registered an FIR against two businessmen Daksh Trivedi and Prakash Kanani for alleged extortion and criminal intimidation. The accused allegedly attempted extortion and threatened to kill Rahul Leekha, 42, the owner and director of 'Coffee By Di Bella' café, along with his wife and five-year-old daughter, over a business dispute. Trivedi, 40, was a business partner of Leekha. The police registered the case on February 6 under sections 3(5) (joint criminal liability), 308(4), 308(5) (extortion), 351(3) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

According to the FIR, the complainant, Rahul Leekha, resides in Khar West and is the owner of 'Coffee By Di Bella' café, with its office located in Mahim West. In Mumbai, he operates 15 cafés across various locations under his business. In 2022, he came into contact with  Daksh Trivedi. Trivedi, a resident of Jamnagar, Gujarat, proposed a business partnership to Leekha to run a café with two other partners, Umang Shah and Milap Shah. Leekha agreed, and in 2023, they signed an agreement for a new business venture. As per the agreement, Leekha allowed the three partners to use his café's name and rights in Gujarat.

The business commenced, but Leekha later discovered that his partners had allegedly  violated the terms and conditions mentioned in the agreement. As a result, on October 4, 2024, he cancelled the agreement and sent legal notices to the trio.

As per the agreement, Leekha had provided raw materials, royalties, and other expenses total amounting to Rs.2 crore. He demanded that the trio return the same amount, but they allegedly avoided doing so for the past one and a half years. Instead, they claimed that they had invested money in the café business and demanded money from Leekha. Subsequently, Leekha filed a formal complaint with the Mahim police against the trio, requesting action under the Trade Marks Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

On January 28, an individual named Prakash Kanani contacted Leekha, introduced himself as an acquaintance of Trivedi, and allegedly  threatened him to settle the matter with Trivedi and his two partners. He warned that if Leekha failed to comply, he, his wife, and his daughter would be killed. The following day, around 5 p.m., Kanani again contacted Leekha and threatened him to withdraw the complaint from the Mahim police station and settle the matter, or he would be killed in Kutch. Furthermore, Kanani warned that he would have Leekha and his family killed using the Gujarat police.

On the same day at 8:30 p.m., Kanani called Leekha again and issued further threats. This time, Leekha recorded the conversation to submit as evidence to the police. During the call, Kanani demanded that the matter be settled for Rs.3 crore, of which Rs.1.5 crore would be kept by Leekha. He also threatened to file an FIR against Leekha. During this conversation, Trivedi also spoke with Leekha.

Eventually, Leekha filed a complaint against Trivedi and Kanani at the Khar police station, after which the police registered the case.