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Journalism of Courage
The Faridabad police have arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly attempting to extort Rs 5 lakh in Bitcoin from a businessman and threatening to kill his son if the money was not transferred to his cryptocurrency wallet.
The police said that a resident of Sector 17 filed a police complaint at the SGM Nagar police station on May 13 alleging that he received an email from the accused on May 10 and they registered an FIR based on it. The accused, identified as Sandeep, was arrested by a team of crime branch, sector 48.
According to the complainant, the accused threatened him in an email to transfer Rs 5 lakh into a Bitcoin account within 24 hours or else his son would either be shot dead or kidnapped.
The police added that the accused threatened that if the victim’s son was to be kidnapped, a ransom of Rs 1 crore would have to be paid and hence it was prudent to pay Rs 5 lakh in Bitcoin. The police said the accused shared a link to a cryptocurrency wallet in the email.
According to the police, the accused threatened the complainant not to report the incident to the police. The accused also promised the victim protection if the money was paid.
Sube Singh, spokesperson, Faridabad police, said: “A probe has found that the accused worked at a shop from 2013 to 2022 in Ghaziabad and helped people in getting PAN cards. He was arrested a year ago in an extortion case. He procured a new SIM card after forging another person’s Aadhaar card. He used the new SIM to demand money.”
The police said that the accused confessed that he wanted to be rich overnight and planned to extort money from the businessman. He had opened a cryptocurrency account to avoid being traced, added the police. “We are probing if the accused was working with any other accomplice,” said Singh.
