GURUGRAM: A 24-year-old woman has been

for allegedly trying to extort Rs 40 lakh from the owner of an automobile workshop in Sector 17 by threatening to file a false

case against him.

Police said the woman, a resident of Farukhabad in UP, was caught red-handed accepting money from the man on Friday night. She has admitted to blackmailing the garage owner for easy money, cops said.

The woman had been staying in a private hostel for girls opposite the man’s workshop in Sector 17. They had started talking to each other around two months ago and became friends with time. The two even entered into a physical relationship. On one such occasion, police said, the woman had stealthily recorded their intimate moments on her mobile phone and started blackmailing him with the clips. She asked for Rs 40 lakh to delete the videos and threatened to file a rape case against the garage owner if he did not pay up.

When the workshop owner expressed inability to pay Rs 40 lakh at once, the accused asked him to shell out Rs 10 lakh initially and pay the rest of the amount in installments. “She was continuously putting pressure on me to pay her the money and threatening to frame me in a rape case,” he said in the complaint.

The man, who is married and has a kid, said he even thought of committing suicide at one point, fearing embarrassment. After being advised by friends and relatives, he approached police and filed a complaint at Sadar police station.

A team was formed under inspector Basant Kumar, the station house officer (SHO) of Sadar police station. After an initial probe, the cops decided to trap the woman. “We asked the complainant to talk to the woman about the payment. It was decided that the man would pay Rs 1 lakh as first installment. The serial numbers of the currency notes were noted down and handed over to the man,” said inspector Kumar.

According to the plan, the garage owner asked the woman to come to a restaurant in Sector 17 and handed her the money there. The police team, which was waiting nearby, barged in and caught the woman with the money.

Police said the woman was married but had been living separately from her husband for the past few years. She works in a private company in Gurugram and lives in the rented accommodation in Sector 17. During initial questioning, the accused had admitted to have developed a relationship with the man with intent to blackmailing him, the police said.