Bhopal: BHEL DGM Falls Victim In Contractor's Honey Trap, Demanded ₹25 Lakhs; Accused Held

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A construction contractor allegedly laid a honey trap for a senior officer posted at the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) in mid-August, acquainting him with two women in a hotel, and later began blackmailing him with objectionable video recordings demanding ₹25 lakh.

After handing over ₹2.5 lakh in cash to the contractor, the official approached Govindpura police on Tuesday and filed a complaint. Police on Wednesday arrested the accused Shashank Verma. Govindpura police station TI Awadhesh Singh Tomar told Free Press that the victim, a deputy general manager here at the BHEL office resides in Govindpura.

He had come in contact with contractor Verma. On August 4, Verma made the DGM meet a woman at a hotel in the city, and assured him that his leisure time with her would remain under the wraps. The contractor, however, had installed video cameras in the hotel room, and recorded the entire activity between the DGM and the woman.

Again, on August 14, Verma introduced a woman, purportedly of a Russian origin, with the BHEL official, and repeated the act. Later in the day, Verma showed both the videos to the DGM. Blackmailing him with the videos, Verma demande ₹25 lakh and threatened to upload the videos on social media, if the official failed to pay the amount.

₹1 lakh as first instalment

Investigating police officials said that Verma sought ₹1 lakh from the official as first instalment. After receiving the amount, he sought ₹5 lakh and also took him to Jabalpur, where he made him transfer ₹1.5 lakh more to his bank account. Upon their return to the city on Tuesday, the victim approached the police.

Victim got a call from ‘crime branch official’

Deputy Commissioner of police (Zone-2), Shraddha Tiwari told Free Press that after the DGM refused to give money to Shashank Verma on August 14, he received a call the next day from a man identifying himself as crime branch official. The purported official told the victim to hand over the money to Verma, if he did not want himself implicated in a rape case.