‘Sextortion’, ‘local goons’, not gangsters, behind most extortion cases registered in city: Police

‘Sextortion’ refers to gaining a person’s trust and then blackmailing them into revealing their intimate details if the money demanded is not paid.

Drop in gang-related extortion calls

A senior officer said that over the past two decades, most gangsters like Ravi Pujari, who were making threat calls earlier, have been neutralised and brought to the country. While the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was active in 2024 when it orchestrated firing outside the residence of actor Salman Khan and the murder of Baba Siddique, in 2025 Mumbai did not see much activity by the gang. “While they have been in the news since the firing outside director Rohit Shetty’s residence on February 1 followed by a threat audio note to Ranveer Singh’s staff member, overall there are just a handful of FIRs that are linked to the gang,” the officer said.

‘Sextortion cases’

“The organised gang that targets the rich and famous needs to create fear due to which they claim responsibility and are in the news. But most extortion cases we have seen in the past few years are related to blackmail where some intimate videos are shot and the person is blackmailed or there is a threat of registering a false case,” the officer said.

The officer added that in one case last year, a Santacruz-based Chartered Accountant (CA) was being blackmailed by two models with whom he had a relationship. They threatened to make his intimate videos public. The CA ended up committing suicide.

The officer said, “We have seen cases where there are groups that target vulnerable people like senior citizens by maintaining physical intimacy, recording videos and then start blackmailing them.”

Earlier this month, a 70-year-old rich businessman from Worli was blackmailed by a gang to pay Rs 2.40 crore. First, the accused women befriended him and later alleged that he had sexual intercourse with them and threatened him with a police case.

Some of the accused who are suspected to be part of the same group then posed as police officers. Eventually not able to take the blackmail he approached the police following which an FIR was registered in the matter.

Local goons

Another officer involved in investigating extortion cases said that apart from sextortion, they have registered cases where local goons, who have some clout in their locality, try to extort money from builders, contractors and even hawkers in some cases. “Since they have some influence in the area, they ensure the builder cannot carry out work without paying a certain sum or only hires their men or purchases building materials from them at higher market rates. They also take money from hawkers or threaten to complain to the authorities,” the officer said.

Copycats

A new headache for law enforcement agencies has been copycat threat calls where the accused not linked to any gang takes advantage of the fear created by a gang and use their name to demand extortion money.

In a recent case, a jeweller from Vile Parle received several calls and messages from a person who claimed to be linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and demanded Rs 20 lakh. Eventually, five persons, including the mastermind from Dhanbad, were arrested in the case.

An officer said that this phenomenon took place even after the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s residence in 2024. “While some are just enamoured by the gang and use social media, others take it as an opportunity to make some money,” the officer said.