After six months, suspect arrested from Nuh in sextortion-suicide case

Police said the arrested prime suspect, Shakil alias Shoukeen, used a voice changing Bluetooth headset to make himself sound like a woman and then made video calls to the victim over WhatsApp and lured him to engage in nude chats.He later allegedly extorted money by threatening to circulate the videos

A 26-year-old suspect was arrested from Nuh for his alleged involvement in a six-month old sextortion case, in which the victim, 38-year-old private security guard, had died by suicide on November 15 last year, police said on Thursday.

The suspect in police custody. (HT Photo)

The security guard lived in a rented accommodation in Delhi and he allegedly fell prey to a sextortion call on November 14. The suspects allegedly extorted ₹72,800 from him within a day forcing him to end his life.

Sextortion, in police parlance, refers to criminals soliciting sexual images and videos from victims to later use them to blackmail the victim and extort money.

Police said the arrested prime suspect, Shakil alias Shoukeen, used a voice changing Bluetooth headset to make himself sound like a woman and then made video calls to the victim over WhatsApp and lured him to engage in nude chats.He later allegedly extorted money by threatening to circulate the videos on social media and to friends and relatives of the security guard.

Investigators said Shakil was arrested on May 20 and was on police remand till Thursday for detailed interrogation.

Subhash Boken, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said Shakil told them that he, along with five to six others, were engaged in sextortion since the past year and a half. “They targeted at least 35 individuals until now. Voice changing headset, a mobile phone and cash was seized from his possession,” Boken said.

According to police, the deceased’s family members initially had no clue as to why he had died by suicide but after they got back his mobile phone from the police, they got to know that he had transferred money via several UPI transactions to a certain person. There were WhatsApp chats with the same person and a perusal of those chats made them realise that the guard had fallen prey to a sextortion racket.

On December 6 last year, an FIR was registered under sections 384 (extortion) and 306 (abetment to suicide) of Indian Penal Code at Rajendra Park police station on a complaint by the security guard’s wife, said police.