Gurugram, June 15: A Sextortion racket in Gurugram was busted earlier. The racketeers used to allure people on Social Media Platforms by preparing fake IDs of smart & beautiful girls, then prepare their obscene/morphed videos by recording screen on Whatsapp video calls.
After that, they extorted the required amount of money by threatening the individuals to upload the obscene video on various Social Platforms.
A mobile phone used in this specific crime was also recovered. The accused had extorted more than 200 people in the last few months.
Investigation of the Sextortion racket in the Gurugram case is in progress. Victims of such types of incidents are being traced all over India. Raids are being conducted in the Mewat region to arrest more members.
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About the Racket:
The Inter-border Gangs Investigation Squad of the Crime Branch has busted a so-called ‘Sextortion’ Racket being run by the Mewat based criminals and arrested the mastermind of the racket near KMP, Kukrola Village, Gurugram, Haryana.
The arrested accused has confessed to their crime of having extorted more than 200 people. The mastermind of this operation has been identified as Barkat Ali (23 years) s/o Hasan Mohd.
It was learnt that they used to demand Rs. 15,000/- only from their target so that the victim prefers to pay the extortion money instead of filing a complaint with police fearing tarnishing his reputation. It has also been revealed that various high profile personalities have also fell victim to this trap.
After diligent technical and hard fieldwork, ASI Brajlal and Ct. Mintu posted in Crime Branch, Dwarka received inputs that Mewat based criminals are indulged in such types of criminal activities and the mastermind would come near KMP, Kukrola Village, Gurugram on 13.06.2021 evening.
The Crime Branch team laid a trap near the expected place of his arrival and the accused Barkat Ali was successfully apprehended and the mobile phone used in the crime was recovered from his possession. On interrogation, he confessed his involvement in the crime. Accordingly, he was arrested in a case of Extortion of Crime Branch.
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Modus Operandi:
In a preliminary investigation, it was discovered the accused persons used to prepare a fake ID with profile names and photographs of girls on various Social Apps. After becoming friends, they used to share their Whatsapp numbers and starts sex chatting.
After few days of chatting, the accused persons offer their target for video calls and tactfully show him a girl stripping her clothes and inviting him also to strip out his clothes. Trapped in their honeynet, the victims used to remove their clothes.
During this process, the accused persons used to record the camera screen of their target by a specific App and never use a voice call befooling their target.
Thereafter, the accused persons posing themselves as Youtubers used to send the morphed/obscene video to the victim demanding Rs. 15,000/- as extortion threatening that if he would not transfer the money to the bank accounts told by them, they would upload his obscene video on various Social Platforms and tarnish his image in society, relatives and family.
The feared victim prefers to pay extortion money instead of filing a complaint with the police in order to save his reputation.
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About the Mastermind Barkat Ali:
The accused Barkat Ali belongs to the Mewat region of District Palwal of Haryana and is a high school dropout. Preliminary, he along with his associates of Mewat region used to cheat innocent people on the pretext of selling cars/bikes over Whatsapp by impersonating themselves as Indian Army Personnel.
In September-2020, he along with associates had committed big loot of Rs. 12.86 lakhs cash by breaking open an ATM machine of HDFC bank at Mysore, Karnataka by gas cutters and other tools.
