BENGALURU: A 52-year-old man was extorted of Rs 25 lakh by a gang of five women. The victim, N Suresh (name changed) a resident of Agrahara Badavane in Ramanagara town, filed a complaint against them on Saturday. Suresh, who is the owner of a theatre in Ramanagara, lives alone after his wife left him around seven years ago. He has neither parents nor children.
One of the accused women allegedly approached him, expressing her desire to marry him. She then introduced the other women to the victim. All the women allegedly started blackmailing him and forced him to give them money. However, the exact reasons for the blackmail is being ascertained.
In his complaint, Suresh said that around six to seven months ago, one of the accused residing near Kothipura in Ramanagara visited his theatre on the pretext of watching a movie.
She introduced herself and said she wanted to marry him, surprising Suresh who said he was not interested. After this, she visited him with two other women from Kothipura. Subsequently, all the women, on one pretext or another, threatened him and extorted money and gold ornaments from him.
Initially, thee accused are alleged to have extorted small amounts, and later demanded large sums. Whenever he refused to pay, they threatened to file false cases of gang rape and POCSO against him and send him to jail. The women also took 500 grams of gold ornaments from him.
The repeatedly blackmailed him, forcing him to purchase online groceries and daily essentials by sending requests through WhatsApp from different mobile numbers. The complainant, who has a kidney ailment, was admitted as an inpatient for 15 days at a hospital in Bengaluru.
A case of extortion (BNS 308) along with other sections of BNS was registered by the Ijoor police against the five women. “The case is under investigation and notices have been served to the accused,” said an officer.