The Malad Police have busted a four-member gang for allegedly blackmailing and threatening a businessman from the Malad area to extort money by threatening to make obscene videos viral on social media. The accused allegedly used nude videos of the complainant to pressure him into paying a hefty extortion amount.
The arrested accused have been identified as Anmol Raj Arora, Lucky Santosh Verma, Himanshu Yogesh Kumar and Dipali Vinod Singh. Following their arrest, a local court remanded all four to police custody. Anmol, Himanshu and Dipali are residents of Versova village in Andheri, while Lucky Verma resides in the Madh area of Malad. All four are aspiring actors who were struggling to get work in Bollywood. Police investigations revealed that they committed the crime in an attempt to make quick money.
The complainant, a 37-year-old businessman, lives with his family in Malad and runs his own business. On Monday morning, between 10.30 am and 11 am, while he was at home, he received a call from an unknown person who claimed to possess nude videos of him. The caller threatened to make the videos viral on social media unless the complainant paid ₹9 lakh. Soon after, the accused sent the nude videos to the complainant on WhatsApp, leaving him shocked.
Subsequently, another person contacted the complainant from a different mobile number and continued to blackmail him with similar threats. The accused also sent the videos to him on Instagram, intensifying pressure to pay the extortion amount.
During this period, the accused allegedly sent the obscene videos to the complainant’s nephew and to an employee working with him. They then called the complainant again, demanding the extortion money and threatening to defame him by making the videos viral if the amount was not paid. Under pressure, the complainant agreed to pay the money but negotiated the amount down from ₹9 lakh to ₹6 lakh.
Thereafter, the complainant approached Senior Police Inspector Dushyant Chavan and informed him about the incident. Taking serious cognisance of the complaint, Chavan directed the crime branch to investigate the matter. Based on the complaint, the police registered a case against unknown persons under charges of blackmail, extortion and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
Following the registration of the case, and as per police instructions, the complainant called the accused to Goregaon to collect the extortion money. As planned, all four accused arrived near Siddharth Nagar, close to Vivek College in Goregaon, where they were arrested by the police.
During interrogation, it was revealed that all four accused were known to the complainant, and that Anmol Arora was his friend. The two often partied together, during which Anmol allegedly recorded nude videos of the complainant. Knowing that the businessman was financially well-off, Anmol allegedly hatched a plan to blackmail him using the videos and sought the help of the other three accused.
Police further revealed that the accused had agreed to share the extortion money among themselves, with Dipali Singh set to receive ₹20,000 as her commission. However, their plan backfired, leading to their arrest. The police are continuing further investigation in the case.