A 23-year-old man was arrested from Bharatpur in Rajasthan for allegedly extorting money from a Delhi-based man by threatening to upload his morphed pornographic video on social media, the police said on Monday.
The accused, Govind Ram, is a resident of Bharatpur district, they said. The police received a complaint in April this year from the victim who said he received a WhatsApp message from a woman and the two started talking. The woman also spoke to him on a video call, the complainant said. A few days later, the victim received a morphed pornographic video showing him with a woman.
Threat to upload video
He then received a call from the woman’s number but a man spoke to him and demanded money for not uploading the video on social media platforms. The victim transferred ₹12,500 to the account number provided by the man, the police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Sameer Sharma said during the investigation, details of bank account and the phone number were obtained and analysed. It was discovered that the mobile number was active in Rajasthan. The email ID linked to the bank account was also put under surveillance, the DCP said. A team was sent to Bharatpur and the accused was nabbed on September 18, the officer added.
During interrogation, the accused allegedly revealed that he worked as an electrician and learnt how to make morphed pornographic videos from some old friends, the DCP said. He then started extorting money from unsuspecting victims with the help of his brother and later formed a gang of such sextortionists, said the officer.
The gang members used to call men on their WhatsApp numbers and spoke to them pretending to be women. They made video calls where a pre-recorded video of a woman played, asking the victim to strip for her. The gang recorded the video call and then morphed them to extort money, the police said, adding a search is on to arrest the other gang members.
