Delhi man held for extortion bid using fake woman’s profile

Cyber cell officials said the accused, identified as Nikhil Singh, a resident of Harsh Vihar, created a fake social media account, pretended to be a woman and befriended the victim to gain access to her photographs

New Delhi

Police said that besides a few text messages, there was minimal interaction between the accused and the victim, and that they never met in person. (Representative photo/HT Archive)

A 21-year-old man was arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a 19-year-old woman, a college student, by threatening to publicise pictures and videos of her created using artificial intelligence (AI) software unless she paid him ₹50,000, police said on Monday.

Cyber cell officials said the accused, identified as Nikhil Singh, a resident of Harsh Vihar, created a fake social media account, pretended to be a woman and befriended the victim to gain access to her photographs. He then sent the morphed content to her as a one-time view message to limit her access and started threatening her.

“The pressure exerted by the accused to pay the money caused her significant distress, to the point where she considered taking extreme steps,” deputy commissioner of police (southwest) Surendra Choudhary said.

Police said that besides a few text messages, there was minimal interaction between the accused and the victim, and that they never met in person.

Investigators said that to receive the payment, he shared a UPI QR code of a street food vendor near his house—planning to implicate him in case the police tracked the payment—who was hounding him over making payments for food previously ordered.

DCP Choudhary said the woman, who is a second-year B.Sc college student, filed the complaint on January 6. In it, she alleged that the accused befriended her asking her for a favour, and as she was a woman, she accepted the request and exchanged a few text messages.

“After few initial messages, the other user shared nude pictures and videos of the complainant and demanded ₹50,000. The person further pressured her, threatening to make the photos and videos viral on social media platforms as well as share them with her family members if the money was not paid,” Choudhary said.

An officer with the cyber cell, not wishing to be named, said: “The chats show that the victim had been pleading with the suspect to show mercy. The suspect rudely wrote that she did care what happened to the victim’s life, as money was what mattered.”

Police said they zeroed in on the accused by contacting the social media platform and obtaining his phone number, following which they used the victim’s help to lure him with the promise of money. He shared the QR code for payment, following which they tracked down the food vendor.

“Our team met the vendor and asked if he had sent the UPI QR code to the woman. The vendor told the personnel that a local man, who often had food with friends, had taken it on the pretext of clearing previous dues. The vendor identified the suspect as Nikhil Singh. A raid was conducted and Singh was arrested from near his residence on Saturday. The mobile phone used in the cybercrime was recovered from him,” Choudhary said.

Police said Singh confessed to have targeted at least six more women using the same modus operandi.