Inspired by Bollywood flick 'ladies vs Ricky Behl', a 28-year-old former call centre employee, Mahesh Bhardwaj alias Rishi devised a unique modus operandi to entice young girls and continued to extort money from them for one-and-half year. However, he was arrested on Saturday evening and police recovered jewellery worth Rs 35 lakh as well as Rs 35,000 from his possession.
His bluff was exposed after he forced a teenaged girl, daughter of a Delhi-based businessman, to buy him a BMW car. The girl stole jewellery worth Rs 35 lakh from her house and handed over to him. However, the girl narrated the incident to her father who reported it to the police. Investigations revealed that the accused has befriended the victim on a social networking site and was blackmailing her on many counts. Mahesh, a resident of Shalimar Bagh, was arrested on Saturday evening. Initially, he tried to mislead the investigators by cooking a false story, but after sustained interrogation, he broke down and confessed that he had extorted money from the victim.
"He told the police that after completing his graduation from Delhi University, he was working with a call centre, but after watching the 'ladies vs Ricky Behl' movie in 2011, he left his job and started duping girls. He roamed in a sports bike and started wearing branded clothes to impress young girls," a senior police officer said, adding that in 18 months, he had duped around five girls with the same modus operandi, but no complaint was made against him. Police said that the 19-year-old victim is pursuing graduation from Delhi University and lives with her parents in Model Town area. "The incident came to light on Saturday evening when the victim's father approached the police and informed them that his daughter feared her lover, who also extorted gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 35 lakh from her in their absence," the officer said.
After registering a case under Section 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Model Town Police station, a team was formed under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police (Model Town) Shweta Chauhan. "The victim told the police about the facebook profile of the accused and after scanning his profile, investigators took out several photographs of the accused," the officer added. later, the victim called Mahesh at a nearby restaurant to meet her and police arrested him there.
"Mahesh told the police that he met the victim through facebook and later he learnt that the victim was his younger brother's classmate. He was in a relationship with her for over a year and in several occasions; she gave him expensive gifts. Few days ago, he wanted to purchase a BMW car and to fulfill his demand, he extorted jewellery worth around Rs 35 lakh from her. He was looking for a buyer to sell the ornaments, but was arrested before he could arrange for one," the officer added.