Chandigarh: Three of sextortion gang nabbed

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 19

Three members of a sextortion gang have been arrested by the Operations Cell of the Chandigarh Police.

The accused, identified as Mubin (39), Rashid (19) and Arjudin (24), all residents of Bharatpur district, Rajasthan, were nabbed from Rajasthan by a team led by Inspector Amanjot Singh, in-charge of the Operations Cell.

Modus Operandi

• Victims are identified through Facebook and other social networking sites
• The victim is asked to do a video call by a suspect, a male, who claimed to be a woman
• During the video call, gang members show a recorded video of some girl to make the victim believe he is having live video chat
• Suspects used an app to make their voice sound like a girl to lure the victim and further record the video
• Victim was then made extortion calls by threatening him of posting the video on social networking sites

The victim, a resident of Sector 19, had complained that he received a WhatsApp message from a suspect, who claimed to be Archana Sharma, a government school teacher.

The suspect had candid conversation with the victim. He later received a video call in which there was a girl on the other side who lured the victim and asked him to remove his clothes. The victim then received threats in which the suspect asked him to deposit Rs 25,000 or else his objections videos will be uploaded on social networking sites.

Later, the victim received a call from another number and the suspect introduced himself as some SHO calling from the DC office, Chandigarh. The suspect told the victim that a complaint had been received against him at the DC office and they were going to take action against him. The suspect then asked the victim to pay him money to reach a compromise.

The suspect gave him a mobile number of some Anmol Sharma and asked him to make payment on Google Pay, following which he transferred Rs 3,120. However, the suspect kept on demanding more money, following which the police were informed.

During the course of investigation, the raiding party of the Operations Cell, Sector 26, Chandigarh, went to Kaithwara, Bharatpur district, Rajasthan, and nabbed three suspects.

Sources said arresting the suspects from that region involved a lot of risk as such gangs operate in syndicate to stop the police from entering the villages.

During interrogation, the suspects revealed that they were running a sextortion gang and had targeted people in Chandigarh and other states by recording their objectionable videos.

Over 2,000 SIM cards used in past one year

There are around 25-30 members in the gang who have used over 2,000 SIM cards in the past one year to cheat and extort money from people.

Extorting around Rs 50L per month

Bank details of the three accused revealed that they were extorting around Rs 50 lakh per month through sextortion racket and a majority of their money was invested in real estate.

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