BJP leader KC Patel, who is a Lok Sabha member from the Valsad constituency of Gujarat, has registered a complaint with the police that a gang led by a woman is blackmailing him, demanding a sum of Rs 5 crore, over some objectionable video clips they had made of him. The incident has reminded people of the Bhanwari Devi case in neighbouring Rajasthan, where a nurse was killed because of a similar blackmailing.
Sex scandals have not exactly been a rarity in Indian politics, and they quite often involve honey-trapping and blackmailing of politicians. More often than not, they kill the electoral ambitions of politicians.
The complaint
Patel, in his complaint to the police, said the gang blackmailing him is led by the woman who honey-trapped him. He said she took him to a residential house in Ghaziabad, gave him a drink spiked with something and subsequently filmed him in objectionable and compromising positions. She and the gang then threatened to circulate the videos on social media if Patel did not give them Rs 5 crore.
The Delhi Police have registered a case in this regard under IPC Section 384, which deals with extortion. They have also reportedly launched a massive manhunt for the woman and her gang, chasing possible leads from other politicians. However, there are still questions as to why Patel would go with the woman to a residence.
Modus operandi
The gang, it has reportedly been revealed in police investigation, follows a fixed modus operandi. First, the woman approaches a politician on the pretext of asking for help, and then befriends them. She then takes them to some residential place, gives them drinks laced with sedatives, narcotics or other substances, and takes objectionable or compromising pictures and videos of them.
She then uses those images and video clips to blackmail the politicians into giving her or her acquaintances high-paying jobs in top positions or simply money. She otherwise threatens to make the videos public or even lodge rape cases against the politicians.
