K’taka police arrest gang extorting money over obscene videos

Bengaluru: Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths from Karnataka arrested a three-member gang who blackmailed and extorted money from people posing as young women on social media.

The accused made nude videos of the people they trapped and then extorted money.

The arrested persons were identified as Mujahid, Iqbal and Asif from Haryana. They got in touch with the victims on social media posing as women. They would post attractive pictures of young women to lure and trap people. The investigations have revealed that the gang was also providing SIM cards to gangs across India for committing cyber frauds.

Once they started a conversation with the victims, they would indulge in sex chats. The accused persuaded the victims to remove their clothes before the camera and made their nude videos.

Once the nude video was made, they would approach the victim and demand money. They threatened that the nude video would go viral if the money was not given.

However, their free run ended when one of the victims lodged a complaint against them in the Cyber Crime police station.

The special team nabbed the accused persons in Haryana. The CID sleuths managed to arrest the accused in spite of stiff resistance from the local villagers.

The accused Mujahid would procure SIM cards directly from distributors by providing false documents. He also got demo SIMs and OTP to operate mobiles used for crimes. The investigations have revealed that the accused had procured as many as 5,000 SIM cards and activated them.

The CID sleuths said that the information provided by the accused was shared with the Cybercrime wing of the Union Home Secretariat and it was found that the accused had 3,951 such cases.

Another accused Asif aided Mujahid in his activities while Iqbal ran a computer printing and Xerox shop. He prepared fake Aadhar cards and false documents. Further investigations are on.

(With inputs from IANS.)