A "journalist" and his three aides were booked by the Fursungi Police in Pune for allegedly posting a defamatory video about a sweet shop on social media and demanding Rs 1 lakh to delete the video. The incident took place on November 17 and 18 at Purohit Sweet Corner and Purohit Sweet Mart in Bhekarainagar.
The main accused have been identified as Rahul Machindra Harpale (Fursungi), Mauli Chavan (Fursungi) and two others.
According to the information, Kheemsingh Omsingh Rajpurohit (42), a resident of Radhakrishna Complex, Fursungi, has filed a case against Harpale.
Kheemsingh claimed that two men first entered the sweet shop and falsely claimed that there were maggots in the masala cashews sold by the store, despite not having purchased anything from the shop. They assaulted manager Nagaram Devasi, insisting that he record a video admitting the shop’s fault. When the staff opposed, they started assaulting the manager.
Later, Rahul Harpale arrived and introduced himself as a journalist from the YouTube channel News Prahar. He claimed to have a video showing insects in the sweets and threatened to upload it on Instagram and YouTube to defame the shop unless he was paid Rs 50,000.
Meanwhile, the victim got a call from Mauli Chavan, known to Harpale, asking him to meet at Shivshakti Chowk. During the meeting, Harpale claimed the video had already been uploaded and viewed by 1.5 lakh people, and if he wanted to delete the video, the amount needed to be paid.
Amol More, Senior Police Inspector of Fursungi Police Station, speaking to The Free Press Journal, said a case has already been registered in Hadapsar Police Station with the same allegations. Meanwhile, after this allegation, a case was registered at the Fursungi Police Station. The police are investigating the matter further.
