Cybercriminal poses as former Delhi Police commissioner, dupes 75-year-old man of over ₹7 lakh

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| Photo Credit: G. N. Rao

In a case of sextortion, a 75-year-old resident of Vasant Kunj was defrauded of ₹7.34 lakh by a group of cybercriminals, one of whom posed as former Delhi Police commissioner Rakesh Asthana.

The cyber scammers trapped K.N. Joshi using the modus operandi of obscene video chat followed by a call for extortion.

Mr. Joshi, in his complaint with the Delhi Police, has said that on January 15, he received a message saying “hello” from a woman who introduced herself as Anjali Sharma.

She then asked for a video call and appeared nude, he said in his complaint, adding, “In a few minutes, the call was disconnected.” Two days later, on January 17, she shared a morphed obscene video of Mr. Joshi and threatened that if he didn’t pay ₹61,000, she would make it viral on social media. Mr. Joshi said that he immediately blocked the number.

Then on January 25, he missed a call from an unknown number. “I called back on the number, and the person told me that he was Rakesh Asthana, Police Commissioner of Delhi. He said that he got information about the video call with Anjali and asked me whether you have contacted her,” Mr. Joshi told the police.

“I told him that I never met her. He said that Anjali is a drug smuggler whose actual name is Neha and shared a copy of the FIR. He said that the video is going viral on YouTube and gave me the number of Dhyaneshwar Bajirao,” he said.

When Mr. Joshi contacted Mr. Bajirao, he demanded ₹21,500 and ₹43,000 through a digital wallet to delete those videos and assured him that he would get back the money.

“This made me gain some trust that they are actual police. He also shared a copy of the email stating that the video was deleted,” the FIR, registered on April 25, reads.

Mr. Joshi thought his plight would be over after paying ₹64,500 in two instalments, but the fraudsters kept asking for more money on one excuse or another.

The person who posed himself as Mr. Asthana and his gang cooked up bizarre stories around Ms. Anjali to extort as much money as possible from Mr. Joshi. He introduced Mr. Joshi to Ajay Kumar Ghagat and told him that Mr. Ghagat is an ACP and Mr. Joshi should pay him ₹2 lakh for “chai pani” (tea and snacks — a euphemism for a bribe).

Then the ACP shared a video of a dead body with Mr. Joshi and told him that Ms. Anjali’s mother had committed suicide, so he should pay ₹4 lakh into her account.

A police officer who was privy to the investigation said that Mr. Joshi paid ₹7,34,500 in total on three different dates.

The police officer added, “In these types of cybercrime, fraudsters use recorded obscene videos of women which they play on a video call to people. Initially, people think that they have got a call from a woman. In the recorded call, these women ask people to undress or indulge in obscene acts. When they do that, these criminals record it and share it with the people threatening that if they don’t pay money, it would be made viral on social media.” 

According to him, there have been cases in which people merely received calls but refused to indulge in obscene acts. “Even then, they recorded the video of such people, morphed it and made it obscene. They shared it back with people asking them to pay. Otherwise, they would make it viral on social media,” he said.

“They use the name of senior police officers to threaten people. In some cases, they dressed as cops and made video calls asking them to pay huge money,” he added. The police have launched a probe hoping to get some breakthrough very soon.

Mr. Asthana retired as the Delhi Police commissioner in July 2022.