Interstate sextortion racket busted, 3 held by Delhi police

The cyber police station of Shahdara district, which arrested the suspects, said the gang used to make sexually explicit video calls to people identified on dating sites, and then used to blackmail their targets by threatening them.

The Delhi Police have busted a sextortion racket operating out of Rajasthan that targeted at least 20 men between 50-70 years of age from Delhi and states such as Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Assam and Madhya Pradesh by blackmailing them with explicit videos, officers aware of the operation said on Monday.

In some cases, the suspects used to pose as senior police officers and threatened the victims with registering criminal cases them, pressuring them into giving money to hush up the case. (Representational Image)

They added that two minors have been apprehended and three men were arrested and ₹40 lakh has been tracked in their accounts so far.

The cyber police station of Shahdara district, which arrested the suspects, said the gang used to make sexually explicit video calls to people identified on dating sites, and then used to blackmail their targets by threatening them with posting the videos online and sharing the clips with their families. In some cases, the suspects used to pose as senior police officers and threatened the victims with registering criminal cases them, pressuring them into giving money to hush up the case.

“We discovered a trail of more than ₹40 lakh in the gang members’ bank accounts. They extorted this money in the last three to four months from more than 20 men across India. In addition, we found 24 sexually explicit videos of various men on the six mobile phones seized from the five gang members. Five complaints have been linked to the gang, three from Uttar Pradesh and one from Gujarat and Uttarakhand. More victims from Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and south India have been identified,” said deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Rohit Meena.

He added that the crackdown on the gang came after a 67-year-old man from east Delhi approached the police with a complaint on February 25 that he had been extorted ₹13.70 lakh by some people. Accordingly, a case under IPC sections pertaining to impersonation, extortion, cheating, and criminal conspiracy was registered at Jagatpuri police station.

According to the complainant, on February 18, he received a WhatsApp video call from an unknown number in which a woman was performing a sex act. The woman prompted the complainant to take off his clothes as well. After a few days, he started getting extortion calls.

According to the complainant, the caller identified himself as the station house officer of a cyber police station in Dwarka, and said that the woman who had called him had recorded the video call and filed a police complaint. According to DCP Meena, the caller threatened to file a case and share the recorded video on social media websites if the man did not pay the money.

“Under constant pressure, the elderly man transferred ₹13.70 lakh into the bank accounts in multiple transactions. However, he approached us and filed the complaint when the demands continued,” DCP Meena added.

During the investigation, the police tracked the bank account numbers and phone numbers used in the commission of the crime. The investigators tracked the suspects to various villages in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur and Alwar districts. The police conducted multiple raids over 10 days, and five suspects, including two minor boys, were apprehended. The officers identified the arrested men as Rahul Khan (26), Arman (21) and Azad (41).

Interrogation of the men revealed that they looked for soft targets, particularly older men, on dating and friendship sites, where they created fake accounts using random names and photographs of women. After identifying their target, the gang members would initiate a video call with the victim, during which they would play a sexually explicit video of a woman using a second mobile phone so that the victim mistook it for a live video.

According to DCP Meena, the five gang members are school drop outs. Rahul Khan was previously employed by a private firm in Hyderabad. “Arman pretended to be a woman and spoke to victims. Azad posed as a police officer and threatened the victims,” he added.