Woman who lodged 14 rape cases held for blackmailing in Jaipur

JAIPUR: A woman was arrested by Sadar police station in the city on Sunday for allegedly blackmailing nearly 14 men on the pretext of lodging an FIR of rape against them.
Closure reports had been filed by police in most of the cases of rape the woman lodged since 2016, and the accused in one case was acquitted by a court.
Police said the woman had targeted mostly lawyers across Jaipur for blackmailing.She had lodged nearly 14 FIRs of rape in Jaipur, Gurugram and Madhya Pradesh, which did not sustain in the courts.
Nitin Meena, a practising lawyer at the sessions court in Jaipur had lodged an FIR of blackmailing against the woman on May 8, said an officer of Sadar police station.
“The complainant, a lawyer practising in a court in the city, had said in his complaint that the woman, identified as Bhawna Sharma met him on the pretext of law practice in January. She took his mobile phone number and started chatting with him on a regular basis. She then asked for Rs 7,000, saying she needed it, and the lawyer said he had given the sum to her,” said the officer.
The complainant told police that when he later came to know that the woman had lodged cases of rape against many people since 2016, he started maintaining distance from her.
“As the woman realised that the lawyer was keeping a distance, she threatened to lodge a rape FIR against him unless he continued giving him money as per her demands. She started taking Rs 5,000 from him every Saturday and also lodged a case of rape against him,” said deputy commissioner of police (West) Amit Budania.
As the lawyer was fed up with blackmailing, he too lodged a case against the woman.
“We have found that the woman had lodged 12 FIRs against different men since 2016. Further probe in this case is on. She will be interrogated soon,” said an officer.