Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations Unit (IFSO) has arrested eight people for allegedly running an extortion racket through a fake loan application where they used to threaten victims by sending them their morphed images.
The accused were arrested from Delhi, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, Gurugram, Haryana and other parts of the country.
DCP (IFSO) K.P.S. Malhotra said they received a complaint from a woman who alleged that an anonymous person was harassing her and threatening her with morphed photographs, which the accused further sent to her relatives and family members.
She claimed that although she repaid the loan she had taken through the loan application, she was being threatened and abused by the company’s employees through WhatsApp. The accused used a Chinese loan application called Cash Advance and used to extort money from people by claiming that they didn’t repay the amount.
Fake pictures
The complainant alleged that the accused used the photo of a senior police officer on his WhatsApp while threatening the complainant. After receiving the complaint, a police team carried out raids in Pitampura and Rohini where they managed to arrest five persons, including one of the accused’s wife. The accused were identified as Rohit Kumar, Vividh Kumar, Puneet and Manish. Puneet’s wife, Divya, was also arrested, the police said.
In another raid in Gurugram, the police arrested Sumit, who used to make threatening calls to the victims. On his disclosure, another accused, Kartik Panchal, was arrested. Panchal used to run a team of callers who used to make calls to the victims, the police said.
On March 14, another accused and mastermind of the group, Ravi Shakar, was arrested from Jodhpur. “The cheated amount was being sent to China by one of the accused. Police has identified crypto accounts of three Chinese nationals involved in the case,” the DCP said.
Wide network
Explaining the gang’s modus operandi, the police said: “...the second team of the gang used to manage financial transactions. After receiving the extortion amount in the bank, the accused used to transfer the money to their masters in China, Hong Kong, Dubai etc. after converting it into cryptocurrency. All members were getting their share as per their role and performance”.
Police added that the accused used to work in two teams, where one of them used to track loan seekers and the other used to call them and ask for return of money and extort them.
The DCP said that the loan application was malicious and the personal details of the complainant were being sent to a third party. A total of ₹8.45 crore was transferred to one of the accused person’s number in the last 15 days and it was subsequently transferred to other accused.
