Four extortionists who were arrested in Anand are now imprisoned in one-day custody on Tuesday. The fifth accused is yet to be caught, the police shared. According to the complaint that was written at Anand town police station, the accused and the complainant met on a gay dating platform. Both of them shared phone numbers and began chatting. Later, the accused called the complainant to meet him in a hotel room. There, the accused shot inappropriate videos of the complainant without his consent and blackmailed him of sharing the videos on the Internet.
Soon, the other accused joined the first accused (the one who was at the hotel) and all of them together took away cash of Rs 4,500 besides the Rs 40,000 gold chain from the complainant. The accused also asked for Rs 5 lakh from the complainant, says the FIR.
The four accused that have been apprehended are Meru Rabari, Tanveer Juneja, and Shakti Bajipura from Surendranagar and Ashif Liyaqat from Botad. The fifth accused Kuldeep Tharola from Surendranagar is yet to be captured, the police reported.
All the accused have been filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code which are as follows:
387 for putting a person in fear of death for extortion,
504 for intentional insult to provoke breach of peace,
506 (2) for criminal intimidation,
120B for criminal conspiracy and
323 for voluntarily causing hurt.
The complaint says that the accused have conducted such extortion over several unsuspecting LGBTQ individuals in other cities as well, in a similar manner, using the same popular gay dating app.
