The wife of Union Minister General (Retd.) V.K. Singh, Bharti Singh has accused a property dealer of trying to extort Rs. 2 crore from him by blackmailing her with audio and video clips that he had allegedly secretly recorded.
A case of extortion and criminal intimidation has been registered at Delhi’s Tughlaq Road police station against the accused, Pradeep Chauhan.
Bharti has alleged that Pradeep Chauhan tried to blackmail her with ‘doctored video and audio tapes’, which he planned to make public, if the money was not paid to him. Chauhan is said to be the friend of Bharti and VK Singh’s nephew.
“We have registered a case under sections 384 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and we have formed multiple teams to look into the matter,” a senior police officer said.
Police sources claim that the suspect intended to splice her conversation to distort the content.
The police have said they are treading very cautiously in this case as were still in the process of recording the statements of both the parties.
In the complaint, Singh wrote Chauhan constantly harassed her through phone calls in which he warned her that he will ruin her husband’s reputation. “She also alleged that on August 6, Chauhan posted some video on YouTube, levelling allegations against her husband. Chauhan has a licensed revolver and has threatened her family with dire consequences,” the officer said.
General Singh retired as army chief in 2012 and then joined the BJP. He is one of two ministers of state for Foreign Affairs.
