It has not been such a merry Christmas for Indian twin sisters, Jyoti and Kiran Matharoo after the pair were charged by a Yaba magistrate court on Friday 23rd December, over cyber-bullying, blackmail and extortion charges.
The sisters, Jyoti and Kiran, although originally of Indian descent, were born to Indian middle-class parents in Toronto, Canada.
In 2014, they became regular in the high-class Lagos scene, mingling with the high and mighty in the Nigerian society and quickly making a name for themselves within those circles.
It is said among the rich and famous Nigerian wives that ‘the fear of the Matharoo sisters is the beginning of wisdom’, after Jyoti Matharoo was allegedly discovered to be the mistress of Nollywood actress Caroline Danjuma’s husband.
Reports have likened them to the Kardashian sisters, particularly because of the constant display of wealth and affluent lifestyle exhibited on their Instagram profiles.
However, it appears the sisters’ high-class days are over after they were found to be the owners of slanderous website, naijagistlive.com which specialised in blackmailing a number of affluent Nigerian men after procuring secret recordings and evidence of their dealings through their ‘sexcapades’.
The sisters met their waterloo after attempting to bite more than they could chew by setting their sights on Nigerian billionaire, Femi Otedola.
They were lured by Otedola and his detective team to Eko Hotel where they were subsequently arrested. On further investigation, secret video cameras and recordings of their dealings with their aristocratic customers were discovered.
These recordings were what the Matharoo sisters used to extort money from their victims after threatening to expose them via the naijagistlive online platforms.
The sisters were arrested, arraigned before a Yaba Chief Magistrate Court on Friday the 23rd of December 2016 and will face a three-count charge bordering on cyber-bullying, blackmail and extortion.
Immediately after their arrest, Jyoti and Kiran made a confessional statement revealing that they are the ones behind the controversial website Naijagistlive.com, they also confessed to have slept with over 100 Nigerian men, all rich and famous.
But prior to the sister’s confession, a supposed old friend and one-time victim of the sisters simply identified as PamMacB on Instagram, had stated that she was one hundred percent certain that the website, naijagistlive.com was run by Jyoti and Kiran.
She had made this claim just around the time the news of the blackmailing attempt on Otedola came out and information on the individuals behind the site was still unknown.
PamMacB had said that she was sure the site belonged to the sisters because when she first met them in London, they had disclosed their ‘genius’ plan to write exposing and damning information about their Nigerian clients in order to make money from it.
She also claimed that when she revealed to Jyoti and Kiran details about herself, her daughter and how well her business was doing, the Matharoo sisters made up stories and perpetuated awful rumours about her on the website, saying she was a horrible mother as well as an escort.
After the sisters were finally caught and arrested alongside their I.T guy, Babatunde Oyebode or Baudex, who was initially thought to own the website, they were made to sign a criminal undertaking in which they admitted that over the past few months, the Naijagistlive website, Twitter and Instagram accounts has been responsible for the humiliation and cyber-bullying of about 274 people.
However, the sisters pleaded not guilty in court and the case has been adjourned till January 26, 2017. The judge gave bail conditions and the sisters are to be remanded in prison till the 26th of January if they do not meet the conditions for bail.
