Senior citizen loses ₹5.45 lakh to sextortion racket
On January 14th, the man got a call from a woman when he was in the USA. The caller woman who identified herself as Sonia Sharma asked him if he was interested in online sex. Later, the woman made a video call to him. She was nude and instructed the man to get naked. The man went to the bathroom and undressed
MUMBAI: Two men and a woman are booked for allegedly extorting an amount of ₹5.45 lakh from a 76-year-old man by luring him into online sex.
According to the Ghatkopar police, the 76-year-old Ghatkopar West resident is a retired employee of a private firm and stays with his wife. His son is 45 and stays in the United States and the elderly man keeps travelling to the US.
“On January 14th, the man got a call from a woman when he was in the USA. The caller woman who identified herself as Sonia Sharma asked him if he was interested in online sex. Later, the woman made a video call to him. She was nude and instructed the man to get naked. The man went to the bathroom and undressed,” said a police officer from Ghatkopar police station.
Shortly after, the woman promised to meet the elderly man and started asking for money from him.
“After that the complainant reached India, he asked the woman to meet him and informed her that he will pay her only if she met him. She then threatened to post his nude photos and videos on social media, if he did not pay her. Soon the complainant started getting calls from one person who identified himself as CBI officer Vikram Rathore from Delhi. He told him that he was visiting Mumbai to arrest him,” said a police officer.
In the meantime, the 76-year-old also got a call from a person who identified himself as Rahul Sharma, an ‘executive’ with YouTube. Sharma informed him that his video had reached him for uploading on YouTube and demanded money for not doing so.
The complainant in total paid ₹5.45 lakh to all the accused and later again got a call from Rathore, asking him to pay more money, claiming Sharma had now died by suicide and he even sent a video of an ambulance carrying a body,” said the police officer. This time, Rathore demanded ₹50 lakh to settle the matter, saying the case had become big.
The complainant then went into depression and approached the police after his friends suggested he should report the fraud.
“We have registered a case under sections 170 (personating a public servant), 120B (conspiracy), 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and under various sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000,” said the police officer.
The police said they have spoken to various banks and are trying to get details about the withdrawal of money by the accused and relevant CCTV footage. We are also checking their mobile phone calls, said the police officer.
