Mumbai: Vinobha Bhave Nagar police have arrested a woman for allegedly extorting Rs 10 lakh from a 31-year-old interior designer from Kurla after he booked an escort service online. The accused, Natasha Dogra, has been booked on charges of cheating, criminal intimidation, criminal breach of trust under the BNS, and the IT Act.According to the FIR, the complainant came across an online link while browsing the internet, which further directed him to an escort website. The website displayed photographs of several women along with their names and WhatsApp numbers. The victim clicked on one of the links, a WhatsApp chat window opened. Police said a conversation allegedly began in which the woman demanded Rs 500 as an advance for a one-hour “service” priced at Rs 3,500. She sent a QR code linked to a bank account, and the complainant transferred Rs 500, followed by another Rs 600 at her request.However, she did not meet him and began citing excuses such as illness. Thereafter, she allegedly continued demanding money repeatedly on various grounds, including travel expenses, a medical emergency involving her father, hospital admission, funeral rituals after the illness and death of her mother, and property transfer expenses in her native place.She claimed she would inherit her parents’ house worth crores and return all the money. According to the victim, she also professed love to win his trust. He further said that when he expressed an inability to pay further, the woman allegedly threatened to send screenshots of their WhatsApp chats to his wife, and file a false rape case. Out of fear, he continued making payments. He finally confided in his brother, who pressed him to lodge a police complaint.Based on the victim’s complaint, police arrested Dogra from Mira Road.
