POLICE have registered a case against two suspected Nepalese women for allegedly blackmailing a man in Maharashtra’s Beed district with secretly recorded intimate video calls and extorting Rs 52 lakh from him, officials said on Tuesday. The two suspects had been living in Delhi, they said. According to the complaint filed by the 36-year-old man, a native of Beed who currently lives in Pune, he befriended a woman through a social interaction app during his stay at a hotel here a couple of years ago. As their contact grew, the woman induced him into a private video call. She allegedly recorded compromising footage during the call and later threatened to circulate it on social media platforms if he did not meet her financial demands, a police official said. Between May 7 and June 13, 2024, the man was allegedly coerced into transferring Rs 52 lakh from his bank account.

 

The money was routed through multiple channels, including several bank accounts, UPI and cryptocurrency transactions, the official said. In his complaint against the two women, the man alleged that they are Nepali nationals who obtained Indian passports using forged documents. He also suspected their involvement in an illicit syndicate that traffics Indian women abroad under the guise of commercial sex work, the official said. The allegations were yet to be verified, the official added. Police on Monday registered a case under relevant legal provisions. A forensic analysis of the linked social media handles, phone numbers, target bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets is underway, the police added.