Ullal police bust extortion racket, gang targeting businessman using girls arrested
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
Mangalore, Nov 5: The Ullal police on Monday November 4 arrested a gang that was allegedly targetting businessmen and rich men by gettting girls to shoot obscene videos and photographs with them, and then using them to extort money.
The police arrested three persons and detained a few others including two girls.
The arrested are Ullal resident Ilyas, Mukkacheri resident Asif and Boliyar resident Shaukat Ali. They were produced in the court.
Mubarak, Jalal, Imran, Altaf, Nawaz, and two girls aged 20 and 23 from Vamanjoor and Kuthar were detained for further investigation.
Modus operandi
The gang has been operating in Ullal for several months and involved in many similar cases. The gang would target businessmen and other rich men and send pretty girls to lure them. The gang would shoot obscene videos and photographs of the businessmen with the girls and then blackmail them. They would threaten to leak the videos and photos to news channel or newspapers or expose them to their families. This way, the gang would extort lacs of rupees. In some cases, the gang would even kidnap a businessman or his relatives and force them into clicking photographs, it is learnt.
Failed kidnap bid
On October 30, Ilyas and his gang had kidnapped Tahir (30), son of the owner of a bakery located in front of Ullal police station. Tahir was taken to Shaukat's house near Melkar in BC Road and a girl was sent to his room. The gang beat up Tahir and forced him to pose for obscene photographs and videos with the girl. The gang then threatened to leak the photos and the video to media if they were not paid Rs 27 lac. Tahir assured that he would pay them Rs 5 lac and agreed to meet them with the money on October 31 in Ullal.
The gang then proceeded to drop Tahir back in their Tata Safari, and on the way, the car got stuck in traffic at Thokkottu. Seizing the opportunity, Tahir jumped out of the car and escaped. He ran to a supermarket owned by his relatives at Thokkottu junction and narrated his ordeal. The Ullal police were informed, and soon the gang was arrested.
Several people targeted
In August, a businessman from Alekala was walking home from a mosque, when Ilyas and gang sent a girl towards him. When the girl hugged Abdulla, the accused gang member Mubarak captured their picture. Mubarak then demanded a sum of Rs 5 lac and threatened to expose him in the media if he did not pay.
The frightened businessman gave the gang Rs 1.5 lac in cash and a cheque of Rs 2 lac.
A person who was running a juice shop in Mastikatte had put his house and land in Ullal on the market. The gang members came to visit the house posing as a family. The girl behaved in an obscene manner with the house owner, while the other gang members captured their pictures and video footage.
They then threatened to accuse the house owner with charges of prostitution if he did not pay them Rs 10 lac. The house owner gave them Rs 5,000 in cash and escaped by jumping from the first floor of the house.
The gang, which came to know that a businessman from Ullal was a homosexual, sent a boy to him, after which the gang demanded a sum of Rs 30 lac from him. The gang was able to collect only a portion of the sum from the businessman. In this case, it is learnt that the case was settled with the intervention of a Congress Yuva Morcha leader.