A woman and her accomplices allegedly duped a 30-year-old businessman of ₹4 lakh by first befriending him on social media and then abducting him after calling him to a mall for a meeting.
The victim is a resident of Anand Vihar. According to the police, he became friends with the woman on Facebook last month and started chatting with her on the website’s messenger.
One day, the woman asked the victim for his number on the pretext that her husband, who knew her Facebook password, could become privy to their conversations. The victim agreed to share his number, and they started talking over WhatsApp.
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Man abducted
On April 10, the two decided to meet at Cross River Mall in Shahdara. However, when the victim went there, he was allegedly abducted by a group of 8-10 men who took him to a flat in Laxmi Nagar in their car.
“In the flat, the men took away his gold jewellery and driving licence. They also demanded ₹25 lakh from him. The victim called his father for help and ended up paying ₹1.5 lakh to the accused,” said Nupur Prasad, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara).
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The accused, however, demanded more money. The victim then took one of the abductors, identified as Arun, to his uncle’s residence, where he paid ₹2.5 lakh to him.
Victim threatened
Two days later, the accused contacted the complainant again and demanded more money. They threatened to leak “objectionable” photos of the victim if he did not pay up.
Scared, the man approached the Geeta Colony police on May 3. Technical surveillance was mounted, and six of the abductors were nabbed. The accused were identified as Sahil Mehandiatta (30), Arun Garg (24), Shoib (23), and Jai Mehta (27). Two others are yet to be identified.
Items recovered
The victim’s belongings, which had been seized by the men, were recovered. The police also found a blank paper with the victim’s signature on it.
Efforts are on to trace the others, including the woman.