2 held, minor detained, for abetting suicide of sextortion victim

On August 9, Mansingh Pawar was found hanging by the fan in his room in the Gurudwara premises. The police had registered an accidental death report (ADR) at the time and initiated a probe into his death

MUMBAI: Two months after a gurudwara cook from Santacruz died by suicide after falling prey to a sextortion scam, the police arrested two people, and detained a minor from Deeg district of Rajasthan on Saturday.

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The accused, Tohid Jafar Ali, 22, Waris Jafar Ali, 19, and a 16-year-old, were all residents of Levda village in Deeg district. The accused were brought to the city on Monday.

On August 9, Mansingh Pawar was found hanging by the fan in his room in the Gurudwara premises. The police had registered an accidental death report (ADR) at the time and initiated a probe into his death. Three weeks later, police learnt that he was a victim of sextortion after going through the contents of his phone, including WhatsApp chats and PayTM payment history showing a transaction of ₹56,000 to the extortionists.

Based on the complaint of the deceased’s wife, the police subsequently booked the then-unknown accused for abetment to suicide and extortion.

“This village is in the newly formed Deeg district, formerly known as Bharatpur. Almost 70% of the residents are known to be involved in cyber frauds for which several police teams from across the country take help of the Kaman police whose jurisdiction the village is under,” said an official from Santacruz police.

He added that the villagers are also known for driving away police who go there to arrest any accused they may have tracked to Deeg.

Under the guidance of additional police commissioner for West Region, Paramjit Singh Dahiya, deputy commissioner, zone 9, Krishnakant Upadhyay, assistant commissioner of police for Santacruz division, Mahesh Mugutrao, a team headed by senior inspector Rajendra Kane and assistant inspector Tushar Sawant searched the village for five days before they could identify and locate all the accused.

“Being a newly formed district, the local police are short of resources to help all the investigating teams in the area. While we were there, we also got technical help from our team back home to identify the accused,” said an officer.

All of them were nabbed with the help of Kaman police on Saturday night.

Five phones have been recovered from the accused, one of which was used to blackmail Pawar. “We found the evidence of the accused being in touch with Pawar. We are trying to find other people whom these three may have extorted,” said the officer. While the two adults are in police custody, the minor was sent to a children’s home. The accused are booked under sections 384 (extortion), 306 (abetment to suicide), 419 (cheating by personation), and 420 (cheating and dishonesty) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.