Nagpur: The Anti-Extortion Cell of the Nagpur Police nabbed a 27-year-old man for allegedly blackmailing the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Rajendra Uchake of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation by threatening to make his private photographs and videos public if he failed to pay him Rs 1 crore, according to police.
The accused, Amit Soni, is a resident of Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh. His wife has also been made a co-accused in the case. A police official said that the accused is a relative of the victim.
Today’s Rate
Monday 04 Nov. 2024
The accused Soni, who is the relative of CFO Uchake, procured the latter’s alleged obscene photographs and videos. He then contacted Uchake and told him that he was also in possession of his alleged obscene photographs sent to his (Soni’s) wife on her mobile phone and started blackmailing him to extort Rs 1 crore from him. Soni threatened to circulate photographs and videos among his family members and other relatives if he didn’t pay him the amount.
After negotiation, Soni demanded Rs 70 lakh cash and agreed to accept Rs 28 lakh cash allegedly as first installment. Fed-up with constant harassment by Soni, Uchake approached the Crime Branch officials who verified his complaint and laid a trap at Ashoka Restaurant, Sadar, on Friday. As per the plan, Uchake, in consultation with senior police officials, prepared paper bundles of the size of currency notes. Some original currency notes of Rs 2 lakh were kept at the top and bottom of the bundles.
Uchake then asked Soni to come to Ashoka Restaurant to collect Rs 28 lakh cash from him. After Soni came and accepted the bundles from Uchake, cops who were already at the restaurant in civil dress, pounced on him. They took Soni into custody and booked his wife Swati by registering a case of extortion under Sections 384 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code against the couple at Sadar Police Station.
The trap was laid by PI Rajendra Pathak, API Ishwar Jagdale, PSIVirendra Bhosle, PSI Anil Ingole, NPC Ajay Paunikar, P C Sudhir Saundarkar and PC Nitin Wasne under the supervision of Additional CP (Crime) Navinchandra Reddy, DCP (Detection) Chinmay Pandit and ACP (Crime) Roshan Pandit.
