Panchkula police bust ‘nude call’ extortion ring with arrest of two

The 69-year-old victim, who lives with his wife in Sector 20, Panchkula, had filed an extortion complaint against the gang on July 8

The local police have busted a gang that blackmailed a resident of Sector 20 with nude videos and extorted ₹16.11 lakh.

The two accused, who were arrested on the complaint of a Sector-20 resident, who lost ₹16.11 lakh to the gang. (Sant Arora/HT)

Two of the gang members – Nasir Mohammad, hailing from Ishnaka village in Rajasthan, and Kushalpal from Jraar village in Uttar Pradesh – have been arrested.

Police took Nasir’s custody from the Delhi Police on December 20, while Kushalpal was arrested from Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, on December 22.

The 69-year-old victim, who lives with his wife in Sector 20, had filed an extortion complaint against the gang on July 8.

In his complaint, the victim had named Nisha, Rahul, and Alok Verma and Gaurav Malhotra, who claimed to be police officers from Delhi Police crime branch.

The complainant told the police that he received a Facebook friend request from a woman named Nisha in June. After he accepted the request, she sought his WhatsApp number, but he refused.

Later, while he was driving his car, he received a video call from the woman on the Facebook messenger and when he answered, he found her undressed and immediately disconnected the call.

Thereon, the woman started blackmailing him, and he also received threatening calls from Alok Verma and Gaurav Malhotra, following which he ended up paying over ₹16.11 lakh to avoid trouble.

Realising the fraud, the victim filed a complaint and a case was registered on July 21 under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.

Tracking the bank accounts where the victim transferred the money, police zeroed in on Kushalpal, who works as a supervisor in a private company. This further led to the two arrests in December.

According to police, the gang had blackmailed several people through the same modus operandi.

ACP Umed said Nasir was facing at least four cases and Kushalpal another two, adding that their network was spread throughout the country.