Pune : In a shocking case of blackmail and extortion, three men were arrested for secretly recording videos of women at a massage parlour, threatening to make them viral, and extorting money from them. The Sahakar Nagar police took swift action in this case and arrested the accused, who had been running this racket at multiple locations across the city.
The arrested individuals in this case have been identified as Rohit Gurudatta Waghmare (age 29, a resident of Yashodeep Chowk, Warje Malwadi, currently residing at Panchshil Tarun Mandal, Bhim Nagar, Uttam Nagar), Shubham Changdev Dhanvate (age 20, a resident of Ganraj Complex, Uttam Nagar), and Rahul Dnyaneshwar Waghmare (age 35, a resident of SRA Building, Kelewadi, Paud Road, Kothrud).
A 40-year-old woman lodged a complaint with the Sahakar Nagar police regarding the incident, which took place on February 3.
According to the police, Rohit Waghmare initially visited an Ayurvedic treatment centre in Dhankawadi with a friend for a massage. As part of his ploy, he took off his shirt, leaving his mobile phone switched on in his pocket to secretly record the incident. During the massage, he insisted the woman to use sesame oil and later forced her to remove her top while massaging him. When she refused, he allegedly forced her to do so, claiming, “I am the president of a party. If you do not follow my instructions, I will shut down your Ayurvedic centre.”
Shortly after, Waghmare returned with his two to three accomplices and showed the complainant a secretly recorded video of the massage. He then threatened to make the video viral if the woman refused to pay him Rs 20,000. When the woman said she that had no money, the accused forcibly took Rs 800 from the counter and left from there. Out of fear, the victim did not report the incident immediately but later approached the Women’s Commission, which led to police action against the accused.
During the investigation, police used technical analysis to track down the accused and arrested them. Further interrogation revealed that they had carried out similar extortion schemes at 7-8 different massage parlours in Pune. Their modus operandi involved secretly recording videos of women and using them to demand money under threats of making the recorded video viral.
Police records indicate that Rohit Waghmare has a prior molestation case registered against him at Warje police station in 2021. Additionally, both Rohit Waghmare and Shubham Dhanvate have previous cases registered at Ambhora police station in Beed and Pathardi police station. The accused were produced in court and have been remanded to police custody until March 12 as investigations continue in this case.
This action was taken by the team of Assistant Police Inspector Sagar Patil, Assistant Police Inspector Bapu Khutwad, Police Amaldar Amol Pawar, Bajrang Pawar, Mahesh Mandlik, Sagar Sutkar, Kiran Kamble, Chandrakant Jadhav, Nikhil Rajivde, Pradeep Renuse, Akash Kirtikar, Mahesh Bhagat, Amit Padmale, Yogesh Dhole, and Khandu Shinde under the guidance of Additional Commissioner of Police Pravin Kumar Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police Smartana Patil, Assistant Commissioner of Police Rahul Aware, Senior Police Inspector Rahul Gaud, and Police Inspector (Crime) Surekha Chavan.
