Archana Nag is an Indian businesswoman who was arrested on 6 October 2022 by the Odisha police on account of allegedly extorting money from prominent and rich personalities of the state like businessmen, politicians, and filmmakers by blackmailing them with photos and videos of their intimate moments.Archana’s husband, Jagabandhu, worked at his father’s grocery store in Jaleswar, Balasore district of Odisha. Later, he shifted to Bhubaneswar to work at a hotel. In 2018, he came in contact with Archana, while she was working at a beauty parlour and married her.Archana Nag hailed from a poor family in Kalahandi district in Bhubaneswar, a place which was once a centre of extreme poverty and starvation deaths. [8]The Print In 2015, she shifted to Bhubaneswar and reportedly started working with a private security company. After working there for a few days, she joined a beauty parlour in Baramunda, Bhubaneswar.In 2018, after getting married to Jagabandhu Chand, Archana, while working at the beauty parlour allegedly ran a sex racket along with her husband. She intentionally made connections with the influential people of the city like politicians, businessmen, and filmmakers and introduced herself as a lawyer to maintain close proximity with them. On the other hand, her husband, Jagabandhu worked at a pre-owned car showroom and introduced himself as a political party supporter to establish a close rapport with the prominent personalities of Bhubaneswar. Archana targeted rich personalities, invited them to her party, provided them with the opportunity of getting intimate with other women and captured their private moments. It was speculated that around 15 girls were involved, acting as per Archana’s instructions to make the influential people fall prey to the sexual trap. [9]Argus News Reportedly, Archana supplied women to the interested party in return for a huge amount of money. She extorted money from rich and dominant people in the state by blackmailing and intimidating them with their photos or videos captured during their private time. Soon, the couple accumulated various assets, jewellery, cars, and other valuable items worth crores.In October 2022, Lingaraj Azad, who is a social activist and is known to Archana Nag’s father, posted on his Facebook handle and revealed that Archana went through a difficult and complicated childhood as she was gang raped during her teenage by four men namely Raju, Surya Narayan aka Landu, and Karan Kumar Pradhan. According to him, Archana’s father was forced to leave his own ancestral property so that it could be used by a builder for a particular construction. His father organized several protests along with the native villagers against the builder to stop the project’s construction. Allegedly, to seek vengeance against Archana’s father, a few anti-social elements targetted his daughter, kidnapped her, and raped her. On 4 October 2008, a case was registered against the accused at Lanjigarh police station. Reportedly, the gang rape case was suppressed by the high profile people holding money and political power. According to Lingaraj, Archana, who was not able to cope with the damage done to her physically and emotionally, left the town without informing her family and never returned. Lingaraj’s Facebook post read, Truth must come to the fore and perhaps Archana’s mental agony forced her to become what she is today. Her gangrape reminds me of the story of much-debated bandit queen Phoolan Devi from Uttar Pradesh. So-called dignitaries of the erstwhile society had remained silent when this minor gangrape survivor had to face the trauma. She is said to be giving sleepless nights to a number of luminaries in Odisha, these days. But, who are actually at fault? ‘Good’ or ‘bad’ are never absolute terms; rather, those should be interpreted in a very relative sense. Public figures directly or indirectly associated with Archana must be brought within the purview of probe. The accused woman should not be blamed alone for all that has recently happened.” [10]Sambad A picture of the FIR filed by Lanjigarh police against the accused in Archana Nag’s gang rape case.In October 2022, it was rumoured that Odia filmmaker, Sridhar Martha, was fascinated by Archana Nag’s life story that he decided to make a feature film on her. [11]Mint.According to Archana’s Facebook handle, she worked as a lawyer at the Odisha High Court. [12]Archana Nag Chand – Facebook.Babu Singh, a member of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), alleged that Archana’s sex racket included a minimum of 25 political members of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party. [13]The Economic Times.According to some sources, Archana had prepared a list of 50 rich personalities from the state to extort money by trapping them in the sex racket. [14]The Economic Times.Archana has a total of four foreign-breed pet dogs and a white horse, which she bought for Rs 6 lakh from Kolkata. [15]India Today An Instagram post shared by Archana Nag’s husband in which he is showcasing his newly bought horse.