2 held for blackmailing woman, demanding Rs 10-lakh extortion

Two persons have been arrested for allegedly blackmailing a woman, threatening to upload some of her 'objectionable' photographs and videos on social networking sites, if she refused to pay Rs 10 lakh to them, police said. The duo was arrested from near the Anand Vihar railway terminal in East Delhi, they added.

The police said the accused were identified as Rajeev Gupta (34) and Akash Pathak (41).

Senior police officials of the East district said in order to earn quick money, Gupta and Pathak hatched a ploy to blackmail the woman and demand a huge sum from her. To evade arrest, Pathak allegedly got a false report of cellphone theft registered. However, he allegedly used the same cellphone, with a different SIM card, to call the victim. 

The police have recovered two pen drives, containing the victim's obscene videos and photographs, and four mobile phones that were used in the crime from the accused persons.

On October 8, the victim had got a complaint lodged at a police station about receiving threat calls on her mobile phone. 

She further stated in the complaint that the caller demanded Rs 10 lakh from her, else he would upload some of her 'objectionable' photographs and videos on social networking sites. The accused even threatened the woman of forwarding the same to her family members, police said on Tuesday.

“We tracked his location based on technical surveillance of the cellphone number, which the accused has used to call the woman. A trap was laid near the railway terminal and Pathak was arrested,” said a senior police official.

Police said Pathak had admitted to his involvement in the case. At his instance, his accomplice Rajeev too was arrested.  “Rajeev Gupta said that he used to work at a restaurant. Gupta said that he, along with Pathak, hatched  made a plan to extort money from the complainant,” said the official.