Women held for blackmailing, extortion

Complainant told police that accused had recorded his video with the help of accomplices

BAHAWALNAGAR:

Police on Saturday claimed to have busted a gang of women blackmailers involved in extorting money from people.

The City A Division police have registered a case and are carrying out further investigation after arresting the accused during an operation.

Officials said that Bahawalnagar District Police Officer (DPO) Quddus Baig formed a team headed by SHO City A Division Police Station Inspector Arif Rauf Mehmood on receiving reports about incidents of blackmailing.

The team took immediate action and arrested the members of the gang, including its ringleader.

Police said the group of women used to extort large amounts of money by threatening people. They contacted the victims by phone, recorded their objectionable videos and blackmailed them for money after threatening to make the videos viral on social media.

A complainant Muhammad Mehmood told the police that one of the women had lured him by ordering repair of weapons and made a video of him while harassing him with the help of other women. They threatened to make the video viral and demanded Rs100,000, the complainant said.

DPO Baig said after the arrests that protection of life and property of the people was the responsibility of the police. “The people should support the police by reporting crimes,” he said.

Several other cases of blackmailing have been reported in the region in the past.

In July, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) cybercrime team arrested a young man for blackmailing a girl through photos taken during her rape.

The youth was accused of sharing objectionable photos of the girl with his friend.

Karim Bakhsh, a resident of Jhang district, stated in an application sent to FIA Assistant Director Cybercrime Shoaib Haroon that his neighbor Ali Raza broke into his house two months ago and raped his daughter.

The accused then started blackmailing her with objectionable photos taken during the assault.

In May, a woman was blackmailed by a close relative after making videos of her being raped in Bhaiwala.

Police registered a case against the accused and started searching for him.

Nasreen Akhtar, wife of Ghulam Shabbir Gul, a resident of 202RB, Bhaiwala, Millat Town, lodged the case, stating that her daughter, who was married to Muhammad Shabbir, came to her house where her relative Muhammad Jaffar tempted her and sexually assaulted her.

He made videos of the assault on his mobile phone and blackmailed her, the complainant said. Police registered the case against the accused under Section 376 and launched raids to arrest him.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2020.