Mumbai: A man has been arrested on Wednesday and his two accomplices have been booked for blackmailing a 53-year-old gay man from south Mumbai and extorting ₹25 lakh from him by threatening to make his nude pictures, chats and videos public.
According to the MRA Marg police, the victim, a businessman, befriended one of the three accused on Instagram and spent two days with him in a south Mumbai hotel. It was when the accused had taken the complainant’s pictures and later used the photos to blackmail him. The accused extorted lakhs from the businessman over a period of a year with the help of his two friends.
The accused are identified as Suraj Ishi, Deepak Koli and Yogesh Jadhav. Ishi and Koli are from Dhule in North Maharashtra, while Jadhav is from Indore. Koli was arrested on Wednesday.
The victim and Ishi connected on Instagram around a year ago. They used to frequently chat and later decided to meet at the complainant’s Fort-based house. In February 2022, Ishi came to Mumbai and visited the complainant’s home. The two got intimate and had a consensual physical relationship, the police sources said. Later, the complainant also met Ishi for two days at a hotel.
“During this period Ishi had allegedly taken photographs of the complainant. Later, he started asking for monetary help from the complainant, who initially helped him with some money. However, later Ishi started frequently asking for money. And when the complainant refused to give him money, he threatened to make his nude photos, videos and WhatsApp chats exchanged with him public, if he failed to pay him,” said a police officer.
Scared for his reputation, the businessman sent him more than ₹25 lakh via UPI (online payment mode) and also through net banking. Between February and November 2022.
As the accused kept on demanding more money, the complainant decided to approach the police. The police on Wednesday registered an FIR and thereafter, laid a trap and when Ishi sent his friend Koli to collect money from the complainant, he was caught by the police.
“Koli and Jadhav helped Ishi in committing the crime. Their bank accounts have also been used in receiving the extortion money from the complainant,” said Rajesh Pawar, senior inspector of MRA Marg police station.
“We are trying to trace the other two accused in the case and also trying to recover the money from them. It is suspected that they have spent the entire money partying,” added an officer.
Ishi has a criminal history and has been named in some theft and extortion cases in the past, Pawar said.
The police have booked Ishi, Koli and Jadhav under sections 384, 386, 420, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and 66E of Information Technology Act.