Instant loan app blackmail case: 7 arrested for extortion by Vadodara cyber crime police
According to the Cyber Crime police station, Chaudhary and Kumar sent morphed pornographic photographs to the victims, who then received harassment calls from “recovery agents” of the loan apps.
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Assistant Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime) Hitesh Makadiya said that while the FIR initially named only Umang Patel, the other accused were arrested as the investigation progressed.
The Vadodara Cyber Crime police station, investigating a case of cyber blackmail of a Vadodara-based trader who availed loan on an instant mobile loan app, has arrested seven persons in the case of extortion so far.
A local court on Thursday granted the remand of two accused to the Vadodara cyber crime police. The two accused – Deepak Chandeshwar Chaudhary and Sachin Kumar Kamat, residents of Ayanagar in south Delhi – allegedly worked closely with two Nepalese nationals and morphed photographs of unsuspecting victims using instant loan apps to later blackmail them to extort money.
According to the Cyber Crime police station, Chaudhary and Kumar sent morphed pornographic photographs to the victims, who then received harassment calls from “recovery agents” of the loan apps.
The others arrested in the case are prime accused Umang Patel, who allegedly opened shell companies and several current and savings accounts for the China-based masterminds; Surat-based Shoaib Mohammed Patel, Ahmadullah Ibrahim Choksi and Nitin Patel as well as Rajasthan-based chartered accountant Arvind Goyal, who helped the accused convert and transfer money to Chinese accounts for a commission.
As per Vadodara-based trader — the complainant in the case — he had availed of an instant loan of Rs 2.5 lakh from two Chinese-based mobile apps. Days after the money was credited to his account, he received calls for the recovery of the money from agents and was blackmailed over his morphed pornographic photographs.
The complainant approached the cyber crime police as he was blackmailed even after he paid Rs 7.5 lakh to the accused who threatened to share the morphed photographs to people in his contact list.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime) Hitesh Makadiya said that while the FIR initially named only Umang Patel, the other accused were arrested as the investigation progressed.
“The FIR was lodged against Umang Patel because he held the accounts through which the transactions were made. The trail of the scam also led us to two accused in Nepal, Arun Bam and Bhaskar Saud. We are making attempts to arrest them… We had been granted 10 days of custody of the five accused arrested earlier. The custody of all the accused will end on Monday,” he added.
The accused have been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 120-b (criminal conspiracy), 384 (punishment for extortion), 385 (putting the victim in fear for committing extortion), 389 (putting the victim in fear of accusation or defamation to commit extortion), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) and 471 (fraudulently using a forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code as well as under Section 66(C) of the IT Act.
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