Grocery shopkeeper held for ‘sodomy, extortion’

“We continued raiding his possible hideouts and arrested him on August 27. Even as six families have reported the issue, our probe has revealed that around 30 minor boys from the village could have been trapped by him,” Kamlesh Bahadur, Superintendent of Police (Rural), Meerut, said.

The police said they have recorded the statements of the victims. All the boys allegedly said that the accused lured them and made them consume a cold drink in his room that was laced with alcohol. “He threatened his victims that their videos would be released on social media if they dared to tell anyone about what had happened to them in his room,” SP Bahadur said.

All the victims claimed that after threatening them, the accused asked them to pay him money, the police said. “Each of them had paid Rs 2,000-5,000,” the SP said. “We have his phone and the camera. Many videos have been deleted from the two devices and I have sought help from our cyber cell to retrieve the videos to gather evidence against him,” he added.