Indore: Seven members of a gang including a woman, the prime accused, were arrested on Friday for posing as crime branch officials to extort money from people. They were arrested after a complaint lodged by another woman, who is a spa centre owner.
Senior Superintendent of Police Ruchi Vardhan Mishra said Laxmi Gaud of Shanti Nagar had lodged a complaint that she runs spa centre named Golden Life Family Salon in Ankur Annex Apartment near Satyasai Square.
She stated in complaint that a woman named Rekha Solanki and six men reached her spa at 4.30 pm on August 7, 2019. The accused posed themselves as crime branch officials and said they have come to raid spa following complaint of sex racket.
Owner Laxmi told them that no such activity is run in the spa. When she asked Rekha to show her identity card, the latter slapped her and her staff members. They threatened to implicate them in a false case and demanded Rs 50,000 to avoid penal action.
Laxmi who got scared gave Rs 25,000 to them and made a video of fake crime branch officials who included Rekha Solanki along with Abhay, Nirmal Rokde, Devendra, Kamlesh, Sagar and Aman.
After receiving complaint, crime branch was instructed to trace accused. Crime branch along with Vijay Nagar police station team met complainant and prepared a plan to arrest the accused.
As per the plan, Laxmi contacted accused Rekha Solanki and told her to take remaining amount near her office. After that, Rekha sent her son Sagar and Abhay Dwivedi to receive money.
As they reached to receive Rs 25,000, crime branch team caught them. They told police that other members of gang are at Rekha’s salon situated in Kabit Khedi.
Crime branch later raided the place and arrested kingpin Rekha, members Nirmal, Aman, Devendra and Kamalesh from there. Accused told police that they posed as crime branch officials and raided spa centres to extort money.
The accused have been booked under Sections 419, 420, 384, 386 of IPC and Rs 18,000 were recovered from them. Prime accused Rekha is class XII pass. She extorted money from people by posing as crime branch official.
Her gang earlier extorted money from people in Kanadiya, Lasudia, Limbodi and Gangwal bus stand. Earlier, she introduced herself as chief editor of a news portal.
