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How 2 Kolkata Tycoons Made 182 Sex Clips of Women for Extortion

Loharuka’s family owns the famous O2 Hotel and Spa Chain, while Aggarwal’s family is the owner of an apparel chain.

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India
3 min read
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Some time in November 2019, Niharika Mehta*, from a prominent Kolkata family, received a call bearing eerie resemblance with another call she had received before. The caller, unknown to her, asked her to cough up 10 lakh rupees, failing which intimate videos of hers would be made public. Niharika had received a similar call before. At that time she had paid the caller Rs 5 lakh. This time, however, she decided to go to the police.

Months later, in January 2020, the Kolkata Police arrested those allegedly behind the phone calls – scions of two of Kolkata's most prominent business families – Anish Loharuka and Aditya Aggarwal.

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‘Women First Trapped Into Emotionally Binding Relationships’

After news of the arrests broke, both Loharuka and Aggarwal's social media profiles were thoroughly scrubbed. With a little prodding, The Quint found that both had been students of BCom (Hons) at Kolkata's St Xavier's College from 2010 to 2013.

Loharuka's family owns the famous O2 Hotel and Spa Chain, whereas, Aggarwal's family is the owner of apparel chain Prapti Fashions.

Due to the high-profile nature of the case, many of their batchmates that The Quint reached out to, were apprehensive to divulge any information. However, the overarching sentiment amongst them was that they maintained a distance from them.

According to sources in the police who have been associated with the case, the two began collecting videos of women in 2013. Most of these women were first "trapped" into emotionally binding relationships. The police sources say that they are investigating to find out how many of the videos were filmed discreetly, and claim many sexually suggestive videos were shared by the women with their partners at the time.

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The woman who filed the first complaint, Niharika, was also one of Aditya's previous partners, they claim. She is now married.

During the course of the investigation, the Police also slapped the Protection Of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on the two, stating in court that the complainant was a minor at the time of the incident.

The police has till date recovered 182 videos from Loharuka's hard drive, 60 of which are that of women. Many of the women, the cops say, were known to the two through family circles. The files had the names, contact information and other details.

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When Did the Extortion Begin?

Police say that while the duo circulated these clips in their "pool" of friends, they started using the clips for extortion in around 2017. It is then that the two got Kailash Yadav, a cook in the Loharuka household, to act as a front for them. All communication to the women were made via Whatsapp through Yadav, so that the name of the duo would not appear anywhere.

As for why they started the extortion racket, lawyers involved in the case have told The Quint that Aggarwal and his family were in some bank debt. Loharuka went along for the thrill of it.

After Niharika lodged a complaint, the cops hit many dead-ends as all the numbers were tracked to stolen phones in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

Soon, they managed to track the tower location of Kailash's phone and nabbed him from his village in Bihar. After the FIR had been filed, Loharuka left the hard drive with Yadav who then handed it over to the cops and told them about Aggarwal and Loharuka's involvement.

After monitoring their movements carefully, the duo was finally nabbed in January and their families were only informed once they were produced in court.

At least one more woman has come out and filed a complaint against the two. Stringent charges pertaining to at least 10 sections of the IPC and IT Act have been slapped on Aggarwal, Loharuka and their cook, Yadav for abetting the crime.

Loharuka and Yadav are in judicial custody, while Aggarwal has been granted bail by a city sessions court on the grounds of his mother's ill health.

Sources all tell The Quint that since many of their victims come from reputed families and are married, they are now unwilling to pursue the case.

(*Name changed to protect identity)

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Topics:  Extortion   Sex Tape   kolkata news 

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