Extortion racket run by woman in jail exposed

Rajkot: A 22-year-old Ahmedabad woman, who had lodged a rape complaint against a Bhuj-based transport businessman, has turned out to be an extortionist who had demanded Rs four crore from him by threatening to make his intimate photos and videos viral.
The revelation came when the Kutch police found the body of the 32-year-old businessman Dilip Ahir while investigating the complaint. Ahir committed suicide hours after the complaint was lodged on June 4 night.
The investigation also revealed that the entire extortion was plotted by Manisha Goswami, one of the accused in the sensational murder of BJP leader Jayanti Bhanushali who was shot dead in a moving train in January 2019.
Surprisingly, Goswami orchestrated the plot using a smartphone from Palara jail in Bhuj where she has been lodged since her arrest in November 2019.
The Nakhatrana police booked Goswami, her husband Gajju, Akash Makwana and Komal Jethwa, both lawyers, Aziz Sama, Ajay Prajapati, Akhlaq Pathan, Divya Chauhan, and a woman named Riddhi. They have been booked under IPC sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 389 (extortion) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy)
Of these, police have arrested Makwana and Sama.
Dr Karanraj Vaghela, superintendent of police, Kutch (west) said, "We started doubting the woman's rape allegations after finding Ahir's body the same day. Our probe has revealed that the conspiracy was hatched by Goswami from the jail. The complainant woman Divya Chauhan got in touch with Goswami through her friends Makwana, Sama and Prajapati."
On June 3 night, Chauhan got herself admitted in the GK General Hospital and lodged the rape complaint against Ahir.
As per the plot, Chauhan befriended Ahir through social media and started chatting with him regularly. In fact, police have also found that Goswami too chatted with him. Chauhan then called him to a hotel in Bhuj where they had a physical relationship. Chauhan then demanded Rs four crore from Ahir.
Police said Goswami's husband Gajju used to collect details about rich and high-profile businessmen and passed them to Goswami.
Earlier, they had decided to trap a businessman coming from Kuwait and extort Rs 10 crore from him. However, his India visit got postponed and they narrowed down on Ahir as the target as he owned a fleet of nearly 200 trucks.