Uttar Pradesh: Blackmailed by sextortion gang, man fakes own kidnapping to get his father pay ransom

A man landed in trouble after his social media friend recorded a purported 'phone sex video' call and sought ransom forcing him to stage his kidnap and extort his father to pay the blackmailers.

Prayagraj: A man faked his kidnapping to force his father pay a ransom of Rs 2 lakh so he could pay the demand of Rs 30,000 made by a sextortion gang which was threatening to release his ‘phone sex video recordings’, in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district.

The incident came to light when his father reached the police station seeking their help to trace his ‘abducted son’. Police said the man's father alleged that he got a WhatsApp call from his son on Friday saying that he has been kidnapped by some men in a black car and they are asking for Rs 2 lakh as ransom.

A little later, he received another call saying that if he did not pay the ransom as asked for, his son would be killed. After the second call, the victim's father tried to trace his son himself in vain before approaching the police. Police acted swiftly to trace the missing from a deserted location in Pratapgarh district. He was alone.

The ‘abducted’ narrated his sextortion ordeal to the police. "I befriended a girl named Ankita Sharma through social media. We shared numbers and started talking to each other. One day, that girl made an obscene video call to me. Although I quickly rejected the call, she recorded me in the video," cops quoted the sextortion victim as saying.

I started receiving threat calls. They asked for Rs. 30,000 from me, they threatened to make the video viral if I did not pay the money. I was scared but I did not have money to give them. So I thought I would extort money from my father. I went from Prayagraj to Pratapgarh to mislead the police, he said.

Deputy Commissioner Of Police (DCP) City Santosh Kumar Meena said, "the number of the blackmailer has been noted by the police and a case has been registered against them." Such cases of blackmailing are on the rise. No one should be afraid of these blackmailing calls and they must approach the nearest police station and give the details to the police. This will help the police to track down the accused, the official advised.