Pramesh S Jain & Dr B Thomas (Special correspondent)
The Mahalakshmi Layout police on Saturday arrested a gang including a couple for trapping single women and black mailing them with the videos records after forcing them to strip .
The accused has been identified as R Mangala, 30,her husband Ravi Kumar,35,and their associates Shivakumar and Srinivas.
Senior officer told reporters a women a victim approached to Mahalakshmi Layout police and complained stating that a lady befriended them and called her to some place and later took her into car in Taverekere area by her husband in a car and forced her to strip and the miscreants recorded her video and are blackmailing demanding money.
Based on complaint special team was formed under PI, Mahalakshmi Layout Kantharaju HM and crime staff swung into action and after collecting information about the gang the team conducted a raid in the place and nabbed duo couple.
After arresting the couple the team grilled them who confessed the crime and spilled their associates name and based on their statement the team arrested two of their associates.
During investigation it was found Mangala used to target single woman and promise to get them alliance to gain their confidence and rob them by blackmailing with the videos,
Using a similar Modus operandi,the accused took a 32-year-old private firm employee and took her to an isolated place on Magadi road,threatened at knife point to strip and recorded their videos.
They later threatened her to upload the video on social media and forced her to handover the valuables she was wearing and made her transfer Rs.84,000 online .
The accused later took her in a car and withdraw Rs.40,000 from an ATM before releasing her.
The accused had even assaulted her when she resisted,The victim got admitted to a private hospital for treatment before filing a complaint with the police.
Based on the complaint,the police have registered a case of abduction,assault,outraging the modesty and blackmail against the accused and arrested them.
With their arrested the team recovered gold and cash worth Rs.1.2 Lakhs and car,knife used in commiting crime has been recovered from them.
The police are further investigating to ascertain whether the accused had committed similar offences in the recent past and a detailed investigation by the team it was revealed that the gang has targeted 8 more women we are investigating further to ascertain their criminal background he added.
Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,C H Pratap Reddy has appreciated Addl CP West, Sandeep Patil,DCP North,Vinayak Patil,ACP, Praveen M,PI,Kantharaju HM,PSIs,as, Lepakshimurthy RG,Sunil Pawar,Vinayak K, Chandrashekhar R,KS Sathish,Karthik S and crime staff as,Srinivas,Naresh,Chowdegowda Manjunath,Sridhar,Abhay Kumar,Madhu Kumar,Chethan,Thippeshnayak D,and Ms.Geetha C has been appreciated for the exemplary and meticulous investigation done by them in nabbing the four member extortion gang and recovered valuables from them a suitable reward will be given to whole team he added.
