The Mumbai Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested a 29-year-old man for allegedly trying to extort a Versova resident by morphing her face on obscene pictures and threatening to defame her on social media. Investigating officers said he would contact women claiming to be a casting director from the film industry and obtain their pictures, after which he would start blackmailing them for money.
Inquiries were initiated after the victim filed a complaint with the Versova police on April 10.
“The victim, in her complaint, said the accused sent her morphed pictures on WhatsApp, and demanded ₹1 lakh, failing which he said he would circulate the pictures on social media. We tracked the Internet Protocol address of the cell phone he was using and tracked him down to Suman Nagar in Chembur, where he was staying with his family,” a Crime Branch officer said.
The investigating team kept a watch on the accused, identified as Siddharth Farode, for 12 days before picking him up for questioning. After inquiries established Mr. Farode’s involvement in the offence, he was arrested on Tuesday afternoon and his cell phone was seized. The accused has allegedly confessed to extorting at least seven women in a similar manner and the police are looking for more victims.
“In the investigation conducted so far, we have found that the accused has tried extorting money from around seven women from different parts of Maharashtra by blackmailing them using their morphed photos, and has also admitted to accepting money from some of them. We have found some CCTV camera footage in the eastern suburbs where he is seen accepting money from a woman, and this aspect is being verified,” the officer said.
The police have also found that Mr. Farode used Pics Art, an application that allows the user to edit pictures, to superimpose the faces of his victims on obscene photographs.
Mr. Farode has been charged with extortion, criminal intimidation, and insulting the modesty of a woman under the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
