Mumbai: Matunga police have lodged an FIR against a French national for allegedly threatening an Indore-based businessman and trying to extort Rs 20 crore from him and his family while also defaming them online.According to the complainant, Vaibhav Rai, promoter of H&H Health Care and Cosmetics, he and his son, Harshal, frequently visit Mumbai for work. He said Harshal befriended the French national, Annabel Drugan, on social media. After meeting Harshal in Mumbai during an India visit and in Dubai in 2023, she told him she was pregnant with his child. In Dec 2023, she gave birth to a daughter. Rai alleged Drugan used the child as leverage to pressure Harshal and his family into financial settlements and giving her company stakes. On May 6, 2023, at a meeting in Matunga, she allegedly first demanded consultancy rights and a stake in the company, threatening to tarnish Harshal’s reputation. Through her lawyer, she issued a legal notice on Oct 8, 2024, demanding 10,00,000 as a lump sum and 8,000 per month (about Rs 9 crore plus Rs 7 lakh monthly). By Dec 2024, her total demand escalated to Rs 20 crore. Rai said Drugan filed false criminal complaints against his family in Indore this Feb. MP HC later restrained police from taking coercive action. —S Ahmed Ali
