New Delhi: The Delhi Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested two accused of blackmailing more than 200 people by making their obscene videos without their knowledge. The arrested are reportedly the members of a gang that has been blackmailing people in such a manner for the past two years. Four members of this gang were arrested by the police earlier, while the two arrested today had been on a run for the last seven months. The initial investigation revealed a transaction record worth Rs 22 lakhs disclosed from 14 of their bank accounts.
Under the supervision of Inspector Anil Sharma, the team of SI Mahavir Singh arrested the accused named Samaydin and Mufid on February 8 from Subhash Chowk, Rajasthan. According to Joint Commissioner Dheeraj Kumar, the crime branch had busted the sextortion gang in the month of July. Four of the gang members named Nasruddin, Zahid, Aditya, and Nishant were arrested by the police at the time. During their interrogation, the arrested had revealed the names of two more members, giving the police a strong lead for further investigation. The accused had also admitted to having extorted money from more than 200 people through this sextortion.
The accused informed that they executed their plans by opening fake accounts on Facebook and other social media platforms with stolen pictures of women. They used these fake accounts to befriend men and asked them for their WhatsApp numbers thereafter. The accused would then lure the men by offering them intimate video call sessions. Once the men join the call, the accused would incorporate the videos of women undressing themselves in the calls, and ask the men to do the same. The accused would then start recording the screen without the other person's knowledge and later blackmail the men with those videos in exchange for money. Several gangs resorting to this technique to dupe money from people have been active in the Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and parts of Southern India.
The investigation has revealed that one of the arrested Mufid has studied only till Class VII, while the other named Samaydin used to drive a JCB to earn his bread and butter. Both the accused have also been revealed to be related to each other as Samaydin is Mufid's brother-in-law. As told by the accused, the gang comprises of around a dozen members, as the police continues efforts to identify them through further investigation.
