KOLKATA: Kolkata Police have arrested three persons including two members of reputed business houses on the charge of blackmailing, and found in their possession videotapes of intimate moments of 182 women.
The videotapes were allegedly recorded by the two members of business families over a period of seven years, a senior police official said on Thursday.
The third person arrested was an employee of one of the two, who used to call a potential victim and extort money by blackmailing her to release the intimate videotapes on the internet, the IPS officer said.
He said Anish Loharuka - a member of a family owning several hotels - and his friend Aditya Aggarwal - a scion of a popular ethnic wear chain - started recording such videos from 2013, he said.
"First, they used to befriend a woman and then develop physical relationships with them. During intimate moments, they recorded photographs and videos and preserve them on computers. After sometime, they came out of the relationship. Their main intention was to squeeze money from these women," he said.
While investigating a complaint lodged in November last year by a woman at Kolkata Police's Cyber Crime section, police nabbed one person, identified as Kailash Yadav, on January 10 for allegedly making calls to the complainant to blackmail her, a senior police officer said.
After questioning him, the police arrested Loharuka and Aggarwal on January 28, he said adding that they did not want their names to be involved and used Kailash to make those threat calls.
Police so far have seized videotapes of intimate moments involving 182 women, which the two businessmen had recorded in the past seven years, the IPS officer said.
A laptop containing the photographs and videotapes have been seized and sent for forensic tests.
It allegedly belonged to Loharuka.
"We have found several messages sent to the victims in the mobile phone Yadav used. We have also retrieved call records of his device," he said.
The complainant has claimed she had paid Kailash Rs 5 lakh but when he demanded another Rs 10 lakh, she lodged a complaint with the police.
The trio, when produced before a city court, were remanded to police custody till February 6.