Bengaluru Police Arrests Cab Driver Over Extortion

The Bengaluru Police arrested a 35-year-old cab driver in connection with extortion and blackmailing a woman. The accused has been identified as Kiran Kumar, a resident of Bhoothaiah Layout in Hesaraghatta.

According to the sources, Kiran extorted a woman passenger by blackmailing her on social media claiming to be an acquaintance of her male friend and threatening to expose her secrets to her husband.

The incident came to light when Police Sub-Inspector Mounesh Doddamani from the Ramamurthy Nagar police station on July 24 spotted a parked cab with several men inside seemingly having a party.

Initially, the police interrogated the men for consuming alcohol on a public road and that's when SI Mounesh noticed that the men were having Glenlivet whisky, a premium Scotch brand priced at around Rs 9,900 a bottle in Bengaluru and this seemed to be unusual.

"When I asked his name, he said his name was Praveen. I asked for his ID. Then, when I checked his purse, his name was Kiran. It was clear that there was something fishy," said Mounesh.

During interrogation, he revealed that he had been involved in a blackmailing scheme that helped him pocket Rs 40 lakh over the past five months.

It all began with a cab ride in November 2022. The woman had hired a cab via an app. Speaking to a male friend during the ride, she shared her marital issues, including her plans for a divorce, not realizing that the cab driver, Kiran Kumar, was eavesdropping.

Despite receiving the extortion money, Kumar continued to harass and torment her, the police said. Desperate to protect her reputation and that of her husband, the woman borrowed 960 gm of gold ornaments from her mother and grandmother and handed them over to Kumar. The gold was worth Rs 20 lakh, the police said.

The police reached out to the woman and persuaded her to file a complaint. "She did not want to file a complaint initially as she feared her family's reputation might be affected. We convinced her and her husband and gave full assurance that we would be with them. Eventually, they filed the complaint," a police officer said.

Kumar was finally arrested on July 28. While the police managed to recover the gold that he had pawned, Kumar had squandered the Rs 20 lakh in online betting, officials said.