4 arrested for ₹6.5 crore extortion racket in Ghaziabad

Police said they had received around 40 complaints related to the racket on the cybercrime portal and suspect that another 8-10 people may be involved.

Ghaziabad:The Ghaziabad crime branch on Friday arrested four people for allegedly running an extortion racket and collecting around ₹6.5 crore from 130 “hired” bank accounts, police said.

According to the police, the suspects had been operating the racket since 2023.

Police said the three suspects are from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, while the fourth is from Mewat in Haryana. They were arrested near the Chaudhary Morh intersection.

According to police, the suspects had been operating the racket since 2023. They allegedly made random video calls to victims and recorded them.

“The videos were then edited to create objectionable content, which were used to blackmail the victims and demand money. The suspects asked victims to transfer money to different bank accounts which they had obtained from people in need. The account holders were paid a share of the money. In some cases, they opened bank accounts online using fake documents,” said Amit Saxena, ACP (crime).

Police said they had received around 40 complaints related to the racket on the cybercrime portal and suspect that another 8-10 people may be involved.

“About 10 days ago, we received a call from an NRI from Canada who shared details of the bank account into which the money was being demanded. The account was in Ghaziabad. During investigation, the names of four suspects came to light, and they were arrested. They used a virtual number of a foreign country to target the NRI,” Saxena added.

Police said the suspects also used artificial intelligence (AI) to create fake videos. An FIR was registered under BNS sections related to cheating and common intention and the provisions of the Information Technology Act at the Cybercrime Police Station.