NRI coastal police have arrested a 28-year-old woman from Andheri for harassing a 42-year-old Seawoods-based businessman and his family, and trying to extort ₹50 lakh from them over the past year.
The police said that the accused was arrested on Tuesday and produced in court on Friday. The court remanded her in magisterial custody, but she later applied for bail and was let off. The police said that the accused, Khusboo Mehta, who ran personality development classes for models and entrepreneurs in Bandra, met the businessman six years ago when he enrolled for a course at her centre.
Fake profiles
A police officer said, “The two met frequently and soon entered into a relationship. In 2016, the businessman turned down Ms. Mehta’s demand to live with her. She then called the businessman’s wife and told her about the affair. When the wife asked her to stay away from her family, Ms. Mehta started emailing her intimate photos she clicked with the businessman.”
The police officer said that Ms. Mehta then created fake Facebook and Instagram accounts, added the businessman’s family members and friends, and uploaded their intimate pictures.
The officer said, “The complainant’s son, a Class VIII student, went into depression after seeing the pictures on social media.” When the businessman requested Ms. Mehta to stop harassing his family, she demanded ₹50 lakh. She threatened to create a fake Facebook profile for his younger daughter and post the intimate photos if he failed to pay the money.
Wife files complaint
On January 31, the businessman’s wife, a school principal, approached the NRI coastal police and the cyber cell to register a complaint. “After we found that the IP address of the fake profiles belonged to the accused, we registered a complaint and arrested her,” the police officer said.
She was arrested under Sections 384 (extortion), 465 (forgery), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 500 (defamation), 503 (criminal intimidation), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC along with Section 67A (publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act.
