Man held for blackmailing 85 women using their morphed pictures

Nitish Aggarwal, deputy commissioner of police (NIT), said Singh created multiple social media accounts from where he copied images and later morphed them to blackmail women

Faridabad police arrested a 42-year-old truck driver from Aligarh on Monday for allegedly blackmailing at least 85 women. The suspect, identified as Ganesh Singh of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh told police that he found a SIM card at a dhaba in Rajasthan and used it to commit the crimes. Cops recovered his mobile phone and found 485 obscene videos which were used to blackmail women, some of which were downloaded from the internet.

Police have recovered the cellphone of the suspect (C) and found 485 obscene videos that he used to blackmail women. (SOURCED)

Nitish Aggarwal, deputy commissioner of police (NIT), said Singh created multiple social media accounts from where he copied images and later morphed them to blackmail women. “He is a serial offender who often targeted women. His interrogation has revealed that he abused and blackmailed at least 85 women so far,” he said. The officer said that Singh habitually created fake accounts on social media and used them to contact random women. He would then allegedly morph their images and blackmail them to elicit sexual favours.

According to Aggarwal, the incident came to light after police received a complaint from a victim who alleged she received a message on WhatsApp on May 6 this year, containing a morphed photograph. “The suspect asked her to not block his number, failing which he threatened to circulate the photograph on social media. She immediately informed her husband about the text. The husband found the suspect’s number switched off when he called him,” he said.

Police have registered a case under the Information Technology Act against Singh and launched a probe. Investigators tracked down the IP address from which the fake accounts were created which led them to Singh, the DCP informed.

Sube Singh, spokesperson, Faridabad police, said that police identified the suspect with the IP address and his location kept on changing. “Teams were formed and raids were conducted at Nagaur, Ajmer, Jaipur, Kishangarh, Rupangarh, Dausa, Alwar and Bharatpur but the suspect narrowly escaped each time,” he said.

Aggarwal said that Singh confessed to constantly searching for women on social media platforms. He copied their profile pictures and morphed them, later sending the doctored images to their WhatsApp numbers. The precise details of his past involvements in such cases are being investigated, Aggarwal said. His mobile phone has been sent for forensic examination.