‘Escorts’ trap tourists with rape-case threat, ring busted

Panaji: Goa police have uncovered an interstate extortion racket that targeted tourists by threatening to file false rape cases against them. The extortionists used the “escort service” ruse to find their prey in the state.

Two women involved in the racket have been arrested by Porvorim police. The investigators are now hunting for the mastermind of the extortionists’ ring.

Porvorim PI Rahul Parab said that the accused had circulated their contact number to draw in tourists. Once a tourist contacts the “escort service”, some women are dispatched to the caller. “When the women meet a customer, they threaten to file a false rape case and assault the customer to extort money,” Parab said.

A case in point is a complaint filed on Saturday by a Punjab businessman, Sagar Ansari, with Porvorim police. The 27-year-old said that around 3.20pm on Friday at GL Classic Hotel at Porvorim, Babita Upadhyay and Sutapa Banerjee assaulted him and his friend Shoaib Ahmed Sadiq.

Parab said the accused forced Ansari to transfer Rs 20,000 to several accounts of other accused persons. The forced transfer amounts to robbery, police said.

It has now emerged that Upadhyay, 28, is a Mumbai resident and Banerjee, 38, is a West Bengal resident.

Based on the complaint, an FIR was filed and a team was constituted to nab the culprits. During the investigation, Parab said police traced the car that ferried the women. The driver has been identified as Deepak Salgaonkar, 37, of Candolim.

“All the accused associated with this case have been arrested, and the vehicle has been seized,” Parab said.

Police are in the process of identifying and arresting other accused involved in the larger racket.

Last year, TOI had reported how Goa police uncovered a “big racket” in which “good-looking girls” from poor families were trapping people with the threat of false rape cases.