Palwal man ends up paying Rs 50K after receiving video call from woman

Tribune News Service

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, July 20

Trouble came calling for a Palwal man after he received a friend request from a woman on social media followed up by a video call. On the other side was a woman “without clothes”. The next day, he received a call from the “CBI chief” claiming that the girl he talked to the previous night was going to upload his video on the YouTube.

In his complaint, the man claimed that an account number was given to him before he was asked to deposit money. He deposited Rs 5,100 at first and ended up paying Rs 50,000 to four persons.

The “sextortion scam” came to the notice of Justice Vikas Bahl of the Punjab and Haryana High Court after an accused in the case filed a petition seeking the grant of anticipatory bail in the FIR registered on January 19 for cheating and other offences under Section 420 of the IPC and Section 67 of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, at Chand Hut police station in Palwal.

Referring to an affidavit filed by the State of Haryana, Justice Bahl observed that the tower location of the mobile number allegedly used at the time of making the extortion call was of a village in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. An analysis of separate call details of the relevant IMEI number showed that another mobile number belonging to the petitioner was found to be used in the phone with the same IMEI number. The last tower location of the petitioner’s mobile number was also the same village.

Justice Bahl added the documents placed before the Bench showed that a notice under Section 41 of the CrPC was served on all accused. But they did not join the investigation. Thereafter, arrest warrants were issued against the accused.

They had purchased a SIM card from Assam with the help of their gang members and travelled to the border region of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

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