Three held for extorting ₹1.8 crore from a retired ITBP officer in Delhi

The gangs operated from Mathura and Bharatpur. They purchased a Mahindra Thar jeep, a residential plot and agricultural land in Bharatpur from the extorted money, said police

The crime branch unit of Delhi Police on Friday arrested three people from different places in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, who allegedly extorted ₹1.8 crore from a retired Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officer by threatening to make his obscene videos viral, officials said on Tuesday.

The teams conducted simultaneous raids at Mathura (UP) and Bharatpur (Rajasthan) and arrested three accused persons.

Special commissioner of police (traffic) Ravindra Singh Yadav said the Inter State Cell (ISC) received information that a retired Commandant from ITBP had registered a case under Section 379 of the Indian Penal Code at Vasant Kunj (south) police station in the last week of January this year, in which he had alleged that a woman on WhatsApp threatened to make his obscene videos viral on various social media. “Subsequently, he received a phone call from a person, who posed as an inspector from the crime branch of Delhi Police and extorted him for money on the pretext of blocking the obscene video on social media. Later, the extortionist gang members claimed that the woman, who had called the man, had killed herself in Rajasthan. They also told him that a murder case would now be registered against him. They extorted a total of ₹1.8 crore from him,” he said.

He added that several teams of ISC collected information and analysed details of at least 200 mobile phones and obtained details of more than 20 bank accounts of various banks. “After analysis of the bank accounts details, it was revealed that the perpetrators had extorted about ₹1.80 crore from the man. Later, after technical analysis, it was established that they operated the gang from Mathura and Bharatpur from different mobile phone numbers. The teams conducted simultaneous raids at Mathura (UP) and Bharatpur (Rajasthan) and arrested three suspects, identified as Mohammad Jarif (30) from Bharatpur, Neeraj Kumar (22) and Ajit Singh (23) from Mathura,” he said.

Yadav also said that while Jarif was the kingpin of the gang, Kumar and Singh were his associates. “Jarif used the bank accounts of Kumar and Singh for transfer of money. During the interrogation, Jarif disclosed that he purchased a Mahindra Thar jeep, besides a residential plot and agricultural land in Bharatpur with the extorted money,” he said.