Five-member gang taken into custody for blackmailing doctor

With a memory card in possession, they issued threats

A five-member gang, including a woman, has been taken into custody by the city police for allegedly blackmailing a doctor by threatening to make public a video of the latter’s private moments with other women.

The police said the gang members were after the doctor since January this year after one of them accidentally stumbled upon a memory card at his clinic at Periyapatna.

The memory card contained videos that the doctor had himself shot while he was spending his private moments with other women.

The gang demanded ₹1 crore to return the memory card and threatened to expose the doctor if he did not pay up. “They managed to extort up to ₹50 lakh in instalments since January this year,” according to a senior police official.

One of the gang members reportedly sent a woman, with whom he had a relationship, to the doctor to extract more money.

The gang members allegedly waylaid his car when he was on the way to his house in Mysuru from Periyapatna and snatched more cash from him. The doctor, who was mentally disturbed from the constant threats from the gang, decided to lodge a complaint with the Kuvempunagar police station in Mysuru.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Prakash Gowda, confirmed that the gang members had been taken into custody and said investigation was on.

The accused had purchased a car and spent the remaining sum extorted from the doctor.

The police are also investigating if the gang members were involved in any other honeytrap cases elsewhere.