NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has busted an extortion racket and arrested a software engineer, an MBA graduate and a computer engineer-turned spa owner for blackmailing mostly businessmen, possibly over a dozen, after filming them in objectionable positions.
Shalini (29), the software engineer, lost her job last year during the lockdown and joined the gang. She would attract middle-aged businessmen on Tinder by swiping right, meeting them at hotels and film the targets in compromising postures using a hidden camera attached to her handbag, said Alok Kumar, joint commissioner of police (crime).
Later, the three would blackmail the victims by threatening to send the pictures and videos to their families. Most paid up fearing a scandal. This time, they asked for Rs 1 crore from a victim, but he approached the crime branch instead.
Dating trap: How a swipe to right netted over a dozen
Shalini was aspiring to make it big in life. A software engineer by profession, she was hoping to get a promotion last year but Covid-19 struck. She first faced a pay cut and then lost her job. She shared her ordeal with her friend Aryan Dixit (28), an MBA graduate from Noida currently living in Chhatarpur Enclave.
Dixit had a friend called Rajkishore Singh (31) living in DLF III in Gurgaon. He was a computer engineer as well and came to Delhi from Bihar in 2012 and was arrested for molesting and threatening his love interest in CP in 2013. Singh soon quit his job to run a spa with his friends and soon started recruiting girls as escorts. As expenses rose, Singh started blackmailing businessmen to shell out money by threatening to implicate them in false rape cases.
Dixit, who had once availed Singh's spa services, joined hands with him in the business as well. He discussed Shalini's problems with Singh after which he suggested she could be roped in the gang.
According to police, Shalini agreed and made a profile on Tinder and began to "swipe right" to businessmen in the age group of 40-50 having business background and then trap them in hotels. Dixit and Singh would then threaten them with their photos and videos.
To hide their tracks, they used social media sites to contact the victims. Fearing their reputation, the victims, most often than not, paid up and did not complain. The last target, though, filed a police complaint. The cops filed an FIR of extortion and formed a team under inspectors Arun Sindhu and Dinesh Kumar to investigate.
"A lot of technical and manual information was collected and analysed after which the instruments used for blackmail and location of the suspects was identified. Singh was subsequently apprehended from Gurgaon. During interrogation, he revealed the role of the other two," joint CP Kumar added.
Dixit and Shalini were subsequently arrested as well. Two handbags fitted with spycam, memory cards, USB Pen Drive, laptop containing videos/pictures of victims and six mobile phones used in crime was recovered from the two.
The cops are now investigating to ascertain the exact number of victims that were targeted by the gang. Initial questioning and recovered evidence suggests there were over a dozen victims.
