Woman, 4 others tried to extort Rs 1.50 lakh from a man with rape threa

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Palghar: Five persons, including a woman, had allegedly tried to extort Rs 1.50 lakh from a man Palghar police on Saturday. The woman blackmailed him saying that she will file a rape case against him if he fails to pay the said amount.

According to reports, the victim was in a relationship with a woman who demanded money between January 23 and 29 this year. She allegedly threatened him to make a rape allegation against him should he failed to give the amount.

"The accused demanded Rs 1.50 lakh. The victim paid Rs 50,000 by cheque but was unable to arrange the remaining amount, leading to the woman and her accomplices telling him that they would kidnap and kill his children if he didn't pay Rs 5 lakh," he said.

An official aware of the case said that a case has been was registered against them at Virar police station for extortion but no arrests had been made so far.

In another case, the Malad police have arrested two people and booked another one for extorting Rs 12,000 from a couple outside a guesthouse at Chincholi fatak by posing as cops. An investigation has revealed that as part of their modus operandi the accused would wait outside hotels and look for unmarried couples or those having extra-marital affair, and after conducting a recce of their movements, they would target them. In this case, they managed to threaten a 46-year-old Goregaon resident, who had gone to the guesthouse with his girlfriend and extort money from him.

Police sources said the victim and her girlfriend often used to visit the guesthouse at Chincholi fatak. As per his statement, on March 24 they had gone to the guesthouse around 11 am. After they left at 2 pm, three men posing as cops waylaid him near Chincholi Bandar and started questioning him about the woman. After checking their ID cards, the trio started abusing and threatening him, and said that they would inform his wife about his affair. Meanwhile, one of them threatened to arrest him and demanded Rs 20,000 for his release. Scared, the victim gave him R12,000. The accused had even asked him not to approach the police station. However, he informed the hotel manager about it.

On April 7 when the manager spotted the trio outside the hotel, he informed the cops. Then the complainant went to the police station and identified the accused - Sandesh Maladkar, 44, and Sachin Kharbi, 38. The third accused Gopal Ghodke is still at large.

(With inputs from PTI)

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