ANTI-EXTORTION Cell of the Crime Branch, on Friday, trapped a youth from Chhattisgarh for blackmailing Chief Fire Officer (CFO) of Nagpur Municipal Corporation Rajendra Uchake by threatening to make his obscene photographs and videos viral if he failed to pay Rs one crore cash to him. Identified as Amit Soni (27), the accused is a resident of Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh. Soni’s wife Swati has also been made a co-accused in the case. Soni, who is the relative of CFO Uchake, procured the latter’s alleged obscene photographs and videos. He then contacted Uchake and told him that he was also in possession of his alleged obscene photographs sent to his (Soni’s) wife on her mobile phone and started blackmailing to extort Rs one crore from him.

 

Soni threatened to circulate photographs and videos among his family members and other relatives if he didn’t pay him the amount. After negotiation, Soni demanded Rs 70 lakh cash and agreed to accept Rs 28 lakh cash allegedly as first installment. Fed-up with constant harassment by Soni, Uchake approached the Crime Branch officials who verified his complaint and laid a trap at Ashoka Restaurant, Sadar, on Friday. As per the plan, Uchake, in consultation with senior police officials, prepared paper bundles of the size of currency notes. Some original currency notes of Rs two lakh were kept at the top and bottom of the bundles. Uchake then asked Soni to come to Ashoka Restaurant to collect Rs 28 lakh cash from him.

 

After Soni came and accepted the bundles from Uchake, cops who were already at the restaurant in civil dress, pounced on him. They took Soni into custody and booked his wife Swati by registering a case of extortion under Sections 384 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code against the couple at Sadar Police Station. The trap was laid by PI Rajendra Pathak, API Ishwar Jagdale, PSI Virendra Bhosle, PSI Anil Ingole, NPC Ajay Paunikar, P C Sudhir Saundarkar and PC Nitin Wasne under the supervision of Additional CP (Crime) Navinchandra Reddy, DCP (Detection) Chinmay Pandit and ACP (Crime) Roshan Pandit.