A mastermind of an interstate sextortion gang was arrested by Delhi police for allegedly extorting lakhs of rupees from victims by threatening to circulate victims’ objectionable videos on the internet.
The accused, identified as Nasir was arrested from Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, police said.
The videos were made via communicating with the victims on Facebook and Whatsapp. A complainant had registered a complaint with the Delhi Police Crime Branch on 2 October, alleging that he was receiving extortion calls from different numbers and callers introduced themselves as officials of Youtube.
They told him that a woman had complained about getting exploited by him and said that they have a video of him with the woman. The accused also threatened to upload the video and implicate him in a sexual assault case if the man did not pay up. The complainant said that out of fear he gave Rs four lakh, the police said.
A case was registered at 386/507/120B sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the investigation was taken up by the police. Police mounted technical surveillance and found that the extortionist used more than 100 mobile phones and more than 1,000 SIM cards issued on fake IDs from Assam, Rajasthan, and Bihar.
It was also found that the gang operated from the Mewat region, tehsil Nagar in the Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. Later on 13 October, the police received information about Nasir coming to Nagar, Bharatpur after which raids were conducted in the region during which he was ultimately apprehended.
The police recovered an SUV that the accused had purchased with the extortion money. Mobile phones used for committing the crime have also been seized by the police along with the accused. The police have also frozen bank accounts of the extortionist with over Rs 2.39 lakh. The police are carrying out further investigation into the case.