Rajasthan man arrested for threatening, extorting Rs 3.78 lakh from Mumbai businessman

According to the police, the victim is a businessman. On February 1, he received a friend request from a woman’s account on Facebook. The police said the victim accepted the request following which they started chatting and subsequently shared each other’s mobile number. Subsequently, the woman started making video calls to him on WhatsApp. The senior citizen allegedly took off his clothes in one of the video calls. “The accused then sent the video recording to him and extorted money by threatening to post the video on YouTube,” a police officer said.

Later, the accused contacted him posing as a CBI officer and claimed the woman had lodged a complaint and an arrest warrant had been issued against him. “They even sent him a copy of the FIR and an arrest warrant and demanded money,” the officer said.

“After the victim paid the money, another person called him and demanded more money alleging that the woman he video-chatted with had died by suicide,” the officer added.

When the victim got another call claiming that her family had registered a case of abetment to suicide against him and demanded Rs 8 lakh, he realised that he had been duped after which he reported the matter at DB Marg police station.

A case of cheating, impersonation and extortion was registered and a team was appointed to trace the accused. “During investigation, we examined the call data record of the phone number, WhatsApp account details and bank account details on which the money was deposited after which the accused was located at Bharatpur in Rajasthan,” a police officer said. A team was subsequently dispatched and the accused was apprehended.

“It was difficult to go inside the village and catch the accused because there is a history of locals attacking police personnel. So we waited outside the village for four days and as soon as he came out, we nabbed him and brought him to Mumbai on Wednesday,” the officer added.