Duo arrested for blackmailing married woman

Two persons have been arrested for allegedly blackmailing a married woman and demanding Rs 10 lakhs, failing which they threatened to upload her obscene pictures with her paramour on social media, police said today.
Akash Pathak, who made the ransom calls, was arrested from Anand Vihar railway terminal yesterday following a trap laid by the police with the help of the victim, who had called the accused after agreeing to pay the ransom, said DCP (East) Rishi Pal.
Pathak told the police that he was making the calls at the behest of Rajeev Gupta, former employee of the woman's paramour, a senior police officer said.

Gupta was later arrested from Parsvnath Metro Mall, he said.
During interrogation, Gupta said he was working at the restaurant owned by the victim's paramour around a couple of years back, police said.
He said that he had access to his employer's laptop and that he had copied the pictures from the device to a pendrive in 2013, thinking that he will blackmail the couple when an opportunity arises, police said.

The police said that the duo got inspired to commit the crime after watching popular shows of Crime Patrol and Saavdhaan India.
Gupta had been facing some financial issues. After watching a few episodes of Crime Patrol and Savdhaan India, he hatched the plan to blackmail the married woman, who was having an extra-marital affair with his former boss, who was also married, said the officer.

He roped in Pathak, who was unemployed, and used the latter's phone to make the ransom calls.
The duo had been harassing the woman for a month, police said.
In order to throw the police off track, Pathak had lodged a complaint last month alleging that his phone had been stolen, the officer said.
Police has recovered two pen drives containing some obscene videos and photographs and four mobile phones, which were used to make the ransom calls, Pal added.