The Ernakulam Central police have registered a case against a couple on charge of bid to extort ₹30 crore from an IT company owner by allegedly threatening to defame him and inflict heavy loss to his company’s business.
The accused are Swetha Babu and her husband Krishnaraj of Thrissur. The case was registered on a complaint by Venu Gopalakrishnan who runs a company at Infopark Kochi.
The first accused, Swetha, used to be an employee with the petitioner’s company before she resigned. According to the first information report (FIR), the accused threatened to spread rumours about the petitioner’s alleged illicit affair with the first accused and implicate him in a rape case. The accused allegedly made the threat to three other employees of the company, including a director, who were called up to a premier hotel in the city on July 23 around 7 p.m.
The accused allegedly asked them to get an affidavit promising ₹30 crore signed by the petitioner. They allegedly demanded that ₹10 crore be credited to the first accused’s account and to give two cheques of ₹10 crore each. The accused allegedly forced the petitioner to transfer ₹50,000 to the first accused’s bank account on July 28, the FIR said.
The police booked the accused under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 308 (2) (extortion), and 3 (5) (common intention).
Published – July 30, 2025 03:47 am IST
