Woman fakes death, partners bait bizman

Police have arrested four people, including two women, for honey-trapping a caterer in northern Bengaluru’s Nandini Layout and extorting Rs 73.55 lakh from him.

The prime suspect, Baby Rani (39), had even faked her death to blackmail businessman Krishna Das. Using her daughter Preethi alias Sheeba Nivedita, she demanded Rs 65 lakh as a final settlement to bury the case as she claimed to have filed a police complaint against Das.

The Nandini Layout police have recovered Rs 11.17 lakh in cash from the gang, besides 60 grams of gold valuables, two cars and a fake FIR mentioning Baby Rani as deceased.

The plot

Baby Rani had taken a personal loan from Das, a caterer, a few months ago. Learning that Das is wealthy, Rani hatched a plan with her son-in-law Manikandan (27) and his brother Prasad Murthy (26).

According to the plan, Baby Rani called Das to a house in Kodigehalli on the pretext of returning the money. While she was inside with Das, Manikandan and Murthy raided the house claiming to be cops. They also threatened to book Das in a prostitution case. Afraid that the incident could damage his reputation, Das agreed to pay them Rs 17 lakh to walk free.

In September, the suspects again called Das saying Baby Rani was murdered and they would name him an accused as she stayed in touch with him. Das was again forced to pay Rs 36 lakh by pledging the sale deed of his house.

The greedy gang tried one more trick to extract more money. They set up Baby Rani’s daughter Preethi to call Das and threaten that she would file a complaint against him before the women’s commission over her mother’s murder. Das persuaded her not to file the complaint and somehow arranged Rs 20 lakh to pay her.

Their luck ran out when Manikandan and Murthy, posing as cops, demanded Rs 65 lakh from Das to pay the police and judges to close his case. They even convinced him that he would get a closure report.

Das grew suspicious and approached the police. Based on his complaint, the Nandini Layout police arrested all the suspects, including Baby Rani who faked her death.