Delhi based YouTuber Namra Qadir arrested for threatening to implicate businessman in rape case, extorting over Rs 80 lakh

Image Source: Instagram

New Delhi: A Delhi-based YouTuber Namra Qadir has been arrested for allegedly extorting more than Rs 80 lakh from a private firm's owner after honey-trapping and threatening to implicate him in a rape case, police said on Tuesday. She was arrested from the national capital on Monday and sent to four days police remand after being produced before a duty magistrate's court, they said. Qadir's husband and co-accused Manish alias Virat Beniwal is at large, police said, adding that raids are being conducted to apprehend him.

Twenty-two-year-old Qadir has more than 617k subscribers on the video sharing platform. Dinesh Yadav (21), a resident of Badshahpur, had lodged a complaint in August but the couple moved court for interim bail, police in Gurugram said.

It was only after their interim bail was cancelled that an FIR was registered on November 26 at the Sector-50 police station against them, they said and added that Qadir and Beniwal are residents of Shalimar Bagh in Delhi.

"Qadir has confessed to the crime and we have taken her on police remand to recover the money and other items that were taken by her from the victim under alleged pressure. Her husband and co-accused Manish alias Virat Beniwal will be arrested soon," Sector-50 Station House Officer Inspector Rajesh Kumar.

In his complaint Dinesh Yadav, who runs an advertising firm, said he got in touch with Qadir sometime ago and Beniwal was with her. He claimed that Qadir demanded Rs 2 lakh for promoting his firm on her channel, and he paid the amount.

Qadir after a few days expressed her liking for him and said she wanted to marry him. They became good friends, according to the complaint.

"In August I along with Qadir and Manish went to a club to party. We booked a room there late at night. The next morning, when I woke up, Qadir asked me to handover my bank cards and (smart) watch. She threatened to implicate me in a rape case," the complainant said.

He claimed that "after this they extorted more than Rs 80 lakh and gift items from me". "Later, I revealed everything to my father who took me to police," the victim said in his complaint.