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A Bengaluru woman's phone call to a friend turned out to be expensive as the cab driver exploited the information she unknowingly divulged to blackmail her and extort Rs 20 lakh in cash and gold worth Rs 20 lakh from her, according to the police.
Despite the fact that the woman refrained from making a police report out of fear of the consequences, the cabbie's arrest and the revelation of his extortion scheme were made possible by an expensive bottle of single-malt whisky.
The police claim that it all started with a cab ride in November 2022. The woman had used an app to hail a cab. She disclosed her marital problems, including her plans for a divorce, with a male acquaintance during the journey, not suspecting that the cab driver, Kiran Kumar, was listening in.
The woman and her husband were found on social media by Kumar, who pretended to be a friend of the woman's male friend and threatened to reveal the woman's secrets to her husband, according to the police. The woman, who was apparently suffering from depression, allegedly volunteered to pay Kumar Rs 20 lakh out of fear of the possible repercussions, according to the police.
The cops claimed that Kumar harassed and tormented her despite collecting the extortion money. She stole 960 gm of gold jewelry from her mother and grandmother and gave it to Kumar out of desperation to save her reputation and that of her husband. According to the police, the gold was worth Rs 20 lakh.
The only thing stopping Kumar from getting away with the crime was a bottle of single malt whisky.
On July 24, Ramamurthy Nagar police station police sub-inspector Mounesh Doddamani noticed a stopped taxi with several males inside who appeared to be having a party.
The males were initially interrogated by the police for drinking on a public street. The men were drinking Glenlivet whisky, a premium Scotch type that costs about Rs 9,900 a bottle in Bengaluru when SI Mounesh spotted something odd.
He identified himself as Praveen when I asked him for his name. I requested his ID. Then, I discovered his name was Kiran when I opened his purse. It was obvious that there was a problem," stated Mounesh.
During questioning, Kumar, 35, a resident of Hesaraghatta's Bhoothaiah Layout, said that he had been a part of a blackmailing plot that had enabled him to amass Rs 40 lakh over the previous five months.
The woman was approached by the police, who then convinced her to report what had happened. "At first, she refrained from complaining out of concern for her family's reputation. We persuaded her and her husband and gave them our utmost guarantee that we would be by their side. At some point, they submitted the complaint," a police officer said.
In July, Kumar was taken into custody. While the police were able to retrieve the gold that Kumar had pawned, they said that Kumar had lost Rs 20 lakh on internet gambling.
