When a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Madhya Pradesh’s Chambal received a Facebook request from a woman, the unsuspecting politician accepted it and began chatting with her in April this year. The two soon began talking via WhatsApp before the politician was shocked to get an extortion call from a gang. The caller asked him to pay or else they will make the politician’s obscene video calls public. The politician paid some money initially. He was left with no choice but to approach the police when the gang continued blackmailing him for money.
The politician is among at least 100 people the gang has targeted in Madhya Pradesh alone. The victims also include several other political leaders, doctors, businessmen, students, and even police personnel.
Chhatarpur police superintendent Sachin Sharma said a Congress leader was trapped after he received a message on his WhatsApp from an unknown number. “The person introduced herself as Anushka from Mumbai. The person did an obscene video call and recorded it. Later, the accused sent a screenshot of the chat between two and recorded video with a threat of uploading it on Facebook.”
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Sharma said the Congress leader registered a case and a 19-year-old student, Adil Khan, was arrested from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur for blackmailing him. He cited their probe so far and added Khan was allegedly a part of the organised gang of over 40 people, who blackmailed people by recording their obscene calls with women. Sharma said many cyber frauds and online extortionists operate from Bharatpur.
Police said the gang sourced a SIM card from Odisha for entrapping people and has extorted ₹14.22 lakh from at least 21 people from across India. Sharma has submitted a case study of over 40 people from Khan’s village in Bharatpur to Madhya Pradesh’s cyber cell to investigate other cases of extortion.
The Madhya Pradesh police were looking for three more accused in the case.
Additional director general of police (cyber cell) Yogesh Chaudhary said this was an old modus operandi of extorting money but the number of such cases increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. “In Rajasthan and Haryana, fraudsters… have started (online) extortion in an organised manner.”
He said the cyber cell was investigating the matter and has also informed the police forces of other states. Chaudhary added the cell has also issued an advisory asking people to avoid video calls from unknown people on WhatsApp and friend requests on Facebook.
Cyber-law expert Yashdeep Chaturvedi this type of cybercrime is increasing as people do not file complaints out of fear of getting defamed “They should understand that the Supreme Court has said the identity of victims in such cases will not be revealed as it is a breach of privacy. If they started reporting incidents, the number of such cases will come down.”