Delhi Police crack down on sextortion ring

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 7

The Delhi Police on Thursday busted a sextortion racket operating across multiple states in India. The police said the case came to light when a doctor filed a complaint about how he fell victim to sextortion following a WhatsApp video call.

He alleged that a group of fraudsters recorded compromising footage of him and extorted a substantial sum of money by threatening to share the video on social media platforms, the police said.

East district DCP Apoorva Gupta said, “Despite paying Rs 8.6 lakh as extortion money, the accused continued to demand more money, prompting the victim to seek legal recourse.”

The police have registered a case. “During our investigation as we pursued crucial leads, it unveiled a trail of financial transactions across bank accounts in Haryana, Punjab and Maharashtra,” the DCP said.

These accounts were found to have been opened digitally without proper KYC verification, indicating a sophisticated modus operandi, the police said. The police recovered call data records and Internet protocol detail records and traced the suspected mobile numbers to the Mewat area in Deegh district of Rajasthan. “During their five-day police custody, the accused also revealed the involvement of other experienced sextortion criminals,” Gupta said.

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