2 Delhi cops held for running extortion racket

NEW DELHI: Two police personnel were allegedly running a sextortion racket through a dating app.
Their associate, a 29-year-old woman, trapped men on the app and took them to her "place", which was rented by the cops, after meeting them at Metro stations and having lunch/dinner. The cops would then barge in, pretending to be preventing a rape, and extort the men.
The racket was busted when a man who was made to shell out Rs 27,000 approached police. As per the misconduct report, a copy of which is with TOI, a PCR call was received on April 17 at Nihal Vihar police station and the complainant, a resident of Gurgaon, told assistant sub-inspector Narender that he was in touch with the woman for the past one week, and on April 16 evening, he met her at Peeragarhi Chowk, from where she took him to a flat in Nihal Vihar.
According to the report signed by the station house officer, two police personnel barged into the flat after sometime and claimed that they had received a call on 100 about misbehaviour with the woman. They also threatened to implicate him in a false rape case and demanded money to resolve the matter, the report stated, adding that the man gave them Rs 15,000 through UPI and Rs 12,000 in cash after withdrawing it from an ATM.
The officials were identified as constable Ankit and head constable Mukesh, and it was found that both were in touch with the woman. Mukesh is posted with the PCR unit, outer zone and Ankit at Nihal Vihar police station.
"The act of the police personnel constituted gross misconduct and indiscipline, negligence towards their duties and also diminishing the image of Delhi Police. Ankit has been suspended on April 18 and a request for disciplinary action has been made to the DCP (PCR) against Mukesh," the report stated.