Gangsters posing as cops extort over Rs 1 Cr from dozen victims
Darpan News Desk IANS, 06 Dec, 2021 01:29 PM
New Delhi, Dec 6 (IANS) The Delhi Police crime branch have busted a 'sextortion' racket in the national capital, which duped dozens of people and extorted more than Rs one crore from them.
Police officials said that the gang of six members, including two women, began its activities just before the first lockdown in 2020. The main member, the kingpin of the racket, identified as Neeraj of Haryana's Bahadurgarh, was apprehended by the police near PVR Cinema, Sector-14, Prashant Vihar, Rohini.
"The accused used to create a Facebook profile in the name of a girl and sent 'friend requests' to their targets. After confirmation of the request, they chatted with their victims, through Facebook messenger, pretending to be a girl. Once they obtained the mobile phone number of the victim they sent obscene content to lure him," police said, adding that after this the female-member of the gang made a video call to further entice the victim.
The gang used to extract complete details from the target to assess his paying capacity. Once they were convinced about the financial background of the target, the female-member of the gang would invite the victim to a pre-decided place and indulge in a sexual activity. Now hooked, when the victim arrived for the second rendezvous, the other members of the gang barged into the room posing as policemen," the official informed.
The victim was led to believe that the police has raided the place. The gang members then posing as 'policemen' threatened the victim of exposure and extorted money from him. This way the gang committed sextortion from more than a dozen victims in the past one and a half years. They have extorted Rs 5 - 10 lakh from each victim, based on his paying capacity, the police said.
Additional Commissioner of Police, Dheeraj Kumar, said that efforts were being made to trace other victims and to arrest the remaining gang members. "Concerned police station has been informed accordingly. Further investigation is in progress," he said.
In a gruesome act, a man burnt alive a woman revenue official inside her office near here on Monday, but in the process also suffered critical burn injuries himself, the police said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said that Kartarpur was ready to welcome the Sikh pilgrims from India to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev - the founder of Sikhism.
A bag with suspected RDX contents was found at the Delhi airport in the early hours of Friday, leading to restrictions in passenger movements for a couple of hours, officials said.
Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri and former cricketer Kapil Dev are among 490 Punjabis who will be honoured during the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak.
