Panchkula: Gang involved in recording obscene video calls busted

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 23

The police claim to have arrested two members of a gang allegedly involved in “making obscene video calls and luring others to join them on social media platforms” to blackmail and extort money from them. A sum of Rs 3.50 lakh was also recovered from them.

The suspects have been identified as Nasir Mohammad, a resident of Bharatpur in Rajasthan, and Kushanpal, a resident of Agra in Uttar Pradesh. The police said the gang targeted a local resident.

The police came to know about the involvement of Nasir, who was in the Delhi police custody in another case.

The police brought him from Delhi on a production warrant and obtained his remand after producing him in a court. During police interrogation, he revealed the name of his accomplice Kushanpal.

The police arrested another suspect from Bhiwadi in Rajasthan yesterday and recovered Rs3.50 lakh from him.

On July 8, 2021, the Sector 20 police received a complaint through the DCP office from a resident of Youngman Housing Society about ‘sextortion’.

The victim informed the police that he received a friend request from someone claiming to be a woman. When he accepted the request, the woman asked him to chat on WhatsApp.

While chatting on WhatsApp, the woman made an obscene video call to the victim and asked him to join her. The woman recorded his video call and started blackmailing him.

The woman later started sharing screenshots of the video call with the victim’s friends. She asked the victim to transfer Rs1.48 lakh into a bank account.

The complainant said later he received a call from a person who identified himself as Gaurav Malhotra.

According to the police, Malhotra told the victim that his obscene video had been uploaded on YouTube and a woman had lodged a police complaint against him in this regard. When the victim asked the caller to delete the video, the latter sought money from him.

“The victim lost a total of Rs16.11 lakh in extortion,” the police said. The victim later lodged a police complaint. A case was registered at the Sector 20 police station.

The plaint

While chatting on WhatsApp, a “woman” made an obscene video call to the victim and asked him to join her. The woman recorded his video call and started blackmailing him.

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