MUMBAI: Mumbai Police arrested three men from Rajasthan in connection with two cases of sextortion where two Bandra residents had been blackmailed into paying up more than Rs 20.5 lakh.
Police said the three accused, Aarif Khan, 21, Junaid Khan, 25, and Raman Jatav, 44, are not very well-educated and have been involved in sextortion for about three to four years.They have never been arrested before. A sum of Rs 12 lakh was recovered from them.
The complainant is a production designer and lives with his family at Bandra West. On September 20, he was watching reels on Instagram when he received a friend request from an account with the username Anushka Sharma. He accepted the request and started to chat with the individual he presumed to be a woman. Later the woman asked for his mobile number and the two started to text over WhatsApp. While still texting with her, he received a video call and answered it. He was taken aback to find a woman in the nude on his phone screen and immediately disconnected the call. Soon after, he received a video clip on WhatsApp with his photo morphed with obscene content. The sender of the video threatened to circulate the clip to his friends and relatives unless he paid up. The complainant was scared and paid Rs 41000. But as the blackmailing continued even thereafter, the complainant approached the Bandra Police. Later another case of sextortion came up before the police where the victim had paid up Rs 20 lakh.
Using technical surveillance methods, a team comprising sub-inspector Shankar Patil, under the supervision of DCP Krishnakant Upadhayaya and senior inspector Sanjay Marathe, went to Rajasthan and pursued the suspects before taking them into custody. Six cellphones and 10 Sim cards were recovered from them. The trio was operating at least 14 social media accounts, police sources said.
Police said the three accused, Aarif Khan, 21, Junaid Khan, 25, and Raman Jatav, 44, are not very well-educated and have been involved in sextortion for about three to four years.They have never been arrested before. A sum of Rs 12 lakh was recovered from them.
The complainant is a production designer and lives with his family at Bandra West. On September 20, he was watching reels on Instagram when he received a friend request from an account with the username Anushka Sharma. He accepted the request and started to chat with the individual he presumed to be a woman. Later the woman asked for his mobile number and the two started to text over WhatsApp. While still texting with her, he received a video call and answered it. He was taken aback to find a woman in the nude on his phone screen and immediately disconnected the call. Soon after, he received a video clip on WhatsApp with his photo morphed with obscene content. The sender of the video threatened to circulate the clip to his friends and relatives unless he paid up. The complainant was scared and paid Rs 41000. But as the blackmailing continued even thereafter, the complainant approached the Bandra Police. Later another case of sextortion came up before the police where the victim had paid up Rs 20 lakh.
Using technical surveillance methods, a team comprising sub-inspector Shankar Patil, under the supervision of DCP Krishnakant Upadhayaya and senior inspector Sanjay Marathe, went to Rajasthan and pursued the suspects before taking them into custody. Six cellphones and 10 Sim cards were recovered from them. The trio was operating at least 14 social media accounts, police sources said.