NAGPUR: A couple from Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh, Amit Soni and his wife, was booked for extortion after honey-trapping a senior civic official who was blackmailed for Rs 1.5 crore. On Friday, crime branch’s anti-extortion cell nabbed Soni from a hotel in Sadar where he had come to collect the first instalment of Rs28 lakh.
The cops have come across images, videos, chats and other electronic evidences from the mobile phone of Soni which suggested that he could be the mastermind of many such sextortion demands and several persons may have fallen prey to the racket. The crime branch is also not ruling out involvement of more people.
The senior civic official became the latest victim of the racket after allegedly exchanging some explicit videos and photographs with the accused woman. After negotiation, the couple scaled down the demand to Rs70 lakh in the first instalment.
Soni, a singer, and his wife blackmailed the official on the basis of the videos and photographs he had shared. The official knew the woman who is also a distant relative, it’s learnt.
Sources said the official initially coughed up some amount but later decided to approach the cops after the couple raised their demand. The couple threatened the official of circulating his videos widely, especially among his friends and relatives.
Police said the woman had lured the official by engaging in sexting and sending her explicit images and videos. Later, Soni also started using her cellphone to trap the official.
City police chief Amitesh Kumar said the complaint was verified before the crime branch proceeded with the plan monitored by DCP (detection) Chinmay Pandit to trap Soni. “The accused was lured to come to a hotel at Sadar where the victim had taken some dummy and real currencies in a bag. The cops had surrounded the place. The accused was given a bag having currency around Rs 28 lakh, including real money worth Rs two lakh,” said the CP adding that Soni has been remanded in two-day police custody.