Two of the suspects being led into police custody in Indore on Thursday

INDORE/BHOPAL: Police have busted a high-profile honeytrap racket that snared several ministers, politicians, bureaucrats and journalists and extorted crores from them by clandestinely shooting their sex videos .

The alleged ringleader, 48-year-old Shweta Jain, was arrested from BJP MLA Brijendra Pratap Singh’s house in a posh housing complex in Bhopal late Wednesday night. She ran an NGO, under whose garb the racket was carried out, say police. Four other women and a man are in police custody.

One of the suspects, 34-year-old Barkha Soni, is the wife of former state Congress IT cell vice-president, Amit Soni. After the scandal exploded on media channels on Thursday, Congress released a letter, dated June 15, which said Amit had been sacked for “anti-party activities”.

Home minister Bala Bachchan held a press meet on the arrests and said that “no one will be spared”.

Working in the garb of Shweta’s NGO, the women made friends with influential people, who they trapped and then armtwisted for cash and favours. Shweta even tried to get an election ticket from Sagar, but it fell flat when an MMS of her went viral, say investigators. She lived as a tenant in Panna BJP MLA Brijendra Pratap Singh’s house in Riviera Town.

The MLA came out with a clarification: “I used to live there with my family till last month but we moved out and hired a broker to look for some tenants. My broker introduced the Jain family to me, who had been living in Riviera for a long time. They moved into my house on September 1.”

It was a complaint by an alleged victim — Indore Municipal Corporation executive engineer Harbhajan Singh — against attempted extortion by this group that opened the Pandora’s box, sending tremors down political and bureaucratic circles on Thursday. Singh said in his complaint that he was being blackmailed by a woman. “The accused demanded Rs 3 crore from Singh. Police registered a case of cheating, fraud, extortion and criminal intimidation,” Indore SSP Ruchi Vardhan Mishra told TOI on Thursday.

The first arrests were made in Indore late Tuesday night when two suspects — Aarti Dayal, 29, and Monica Yadav, 18 — were waiting in an SUV to receive the first instalment of Rs 50 lakh extortion money, police said. Aarti hails from Chhatarpur and Monica is from Rajgarh but they lived in Minal Residency, Bhopal. Driver Omprakash Kori was also arrested.

During interrogation, the women spilled the beans on how the gang was targeting high-profile individuals across MP , Mishra said. “They revealed information about three other women operating from Bhopal, following which help from the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) was sought,” the Indore SSP said.

Waiting for extortion money in SUV, two get picked by cops

The first arrests were made in Indore’s Vijay Nagar late Tuesday night when two suspects — Aarti Dayal, 29, and Monica Yadav, 18 — were waiting in an SUV to receive the first installment of Rs 50 lakh of the extortion money, police said. Aarti hails from Chhatarpur, and Monica is from Rajgarh but they lived in Minal Residency in Bhopal. Driver Omprakash Kori was also arrested.

During interrogation, the women spilled the beans on how the gang was targeting high profile individuals across Madhya Pradesh, SSP Mishra said. “They revealed information about three other women operating from Bhopal, following which help from the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) was sought,” the Indore SSP said.

The ATS, which generally deals with counter-terrorism, raided the house of the BJP MLA with the help of Bhopal Police and arrested Shweta Jain. Another Shweta Jain, a 39-year-old, was picked up from Minal Residency in Bhopal, and Barkha Soni was nabbed from Kotra Sultanabad locality of Bhopal.

Police have seized laptops, mobile phones and Rs 14 lakh in cash from all the accused. These have been sent to Sagar for forensic investigation. Investigators are going through call data of all six suspects.

Singh, in his complaint, said that he met Aarti in Bhopal around eight months ago. Then, they met at an Indore hotel, where an objectionable video was clandestinely made by the accused, SSP Mishra said.

A few days ago, Aarti sent the seven-minute-long video to Singh on WhatsApp and deleted it seconds after he had seen it, says the FIR. Singh went to police, and the racket was busted in three days. “All the six accused have been produced in court and taken on police remand for three days,” said the SSP.

Political parties and top bureaucrats are tightlipped about the influence the gang might have exerted in various circles. Home minister Bala Bachchan refrained from revealing details of the gang’s operation, and said, “We don't want to politicize the case. Remember, this is the action of Kamal Nath government. I congratulate the (police) team for taking appropriate action.”

