Bengaluru, Aug 1 (IANS): Four members of a gang have been arrested in Bengaluru in connection with assaulting, blackmailing and extorting widows and divorce women over nude videos, police said on Monday.

According to the police, the accused, including a woman, targeted the victims in the pretext of helping them out with financial assistance and jobs.

The arrested persons were identified as Ravi, a resident of Chikkagollarahatti, his wife Mangala, Srinivas and Shivakumar from Kunigal taluk of Tumakuru district.3

Srinivas and Shivakumar are brothers and worked in a gas agency.

The accused identified widows, divorced women and also those who were living separately from their partners.

Mangala would approach them and after collecting their details offered them assistance, spoke to them over the phone sympathising with them and gained trust.

Once the victims were lured, she called them to a blind spot assuring them of getting a job.

The accused would kidnap them and take them to isolated places, after which they would threaten the women to strip by wielding weapons.

If the victims resisted they assaulted them and made nude videos.

Later, the accused threatened them with making the nude videos viral and extorted money and gold from them.

The police have seized Rs 1.20 lakh worth of gold, Rs 70,000 cash, as well as the car and weapons used to commit the crimes.

Investigations have revealed that eight women were victimised by the accused.

The victims however, did not lodge a police complaint being fearful of consequences.

However, one of the victims who was kidnapped from the limits of Mahalakshmi Layout police station lodged a police complaint putting an end to the free run of the accused gang.

She had explained that the accused kidnapped her in the car and dragged to an isolated place in Tavarekere and stripped her and made nude videos.

They had extorted 23 grams of gold and made her transfer Rs 84,000 digitally.

They had also got Rs 40,000 cash from her.

The police acted on the complaint and nabbed the gang and during the course of investigation the accused confessed to the crime.