india

Updated: Nov 03, 2019 02:39 IST

The special investigation team (SIT) of Madhya Pradesh police will register the statements of high-profile people, including senior bureaucrats, police officials and businessmen, targeted in an alleged extortion racket case at a government rest house, sources have said.

The SIT has trawled through more than 1000 videos and audio clips in the course of their investigation into the alleged extortion racket that not only blackmailed VIPs but also lured young girls to use as baits to con people in positions of power.

The videos were stored in the phones and the laptops of the gang members of a complex network spread across three states --- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

The police said the gang not only extorted money but also got key government contracts with the help of influential persons they had honey-trapped.

“According to the videos and audio clips recovered from the gang, SIT has formed a list of officers and businessmen and sent a notice to them,” a police officer, who is familiar with the development, said.

“Instead of summoning them to MP cyber cell head office, they will be questioned at the rest house to avoid embarrassment to them and controversies,” the officer said.

These people will be asked to confirm whether it’s them in the video, recovered from the gang, or someone else.

“Similarly, they would be asked if they were blackmailed by the gang and undue offers were given to the gang members by them,” said the officer.

“The officers will also be asked to confirm their voice in the audio clips recovered from the gang members. SIT has recovered various audio clips in which the gang members could be heard pressurizing the officers,” he added.

SIT, which was formed in September, has been able to achieve any major breakthrough in the past month. With the interrogation of the high profile people, the investigation is expected to be expedited, said the officer.

When contacted SIT head and additional director general of police Rajendra Kumar refused to share any details related to the investigation.

“The investigation, which is taking place on multiple fronts, is underway. We can’t comment anything as there are many aspects involved in it and we have to verify everything,” SIT member and Indore’s senior superintendent of police Ruchi Vardhan Mishra said.

The extortion gang was busted when six people, including five women, were arrested on September 18 and 19 from Indore and Bhopal after an engineer of the Indore Municipal Corporation lodged a police complaint claiming that they had demanded Rs 3 crore from him in exchange for not making his videos public.

Those arrested are Aarti Dayal, Monica Yadav, Omprakash Kori, Shweta Swapnil Jain, Shweta Vijay Jain, and Barkha Soni Bhatnagar.

Apart from the extortion case, the gang members were also booked for human trafficking after Monica Yadav alleged that she was trapped by Dayal and Shweta Vijay Jain in the racket.

Shweta Vijay Jain and Dayal are on a five-day police remand in connection with the human trafficking case and officers of SIT are interrogating them.