Prime accused, a Ludhiana resident, still abscondingMischievous Internet-savvy youngsters eager to befriend girls and chat with them online — Suryansh, prime accused in the ‘web extortion’ case, was reportedly always on the lookout for such targets. Posing as a girl, the accused would let himself befriended by such youngsters and then strike it rich by blackmailing them after allegedly morphing their photographs and threatening to make them public, the police said.The cyber crime cell of the Chandigarh Police cracked the case on Sunday, by arresting a couple — Deepak Singh and Puja Negi — who allegedly worked for Suryansh, a resident of Ludhiana, as his messengers.According to members of the cell, due to his unique email ID — khoonkar_darinda840@yahoo.com — complainant Navkaran Singh fit the profile of a perfect target for the accused who laid a trap for him by posing as ‘Shelly’ in the Yahoo chatroom. As their friendship grew after regular chatting, police sources said, Navkaran showed ‘Shelly’ the pictures of his family. The accused then morphed the pictures, making them obscene, and allegedly started blackmailing him into parting with money and valuables.“The two never met, but the complainant sent his photographs to the ‘girl’ through Internet, completely ignorant of the racket,” a police officer said.While Suryaansh is still absconding, a local court sent Deepak and Puja to two days’ police custody on Monday. The sources said the accused had an affair with Puja prior to her marriage and that he had blackmailed her the same way into making conversations with Navkaran on the phone, posing as Shelly. The police added that while it was Suryaansh who ran the racket with the help of a fake email ID — shellyjindaal@yahoo.com — he had roped in Puja because he needed a female voice for talking to his target.According to the police, the accused had managed to rope in Deepak, an employee with a courier firm, too, by blackmailing him.Navkaran was forced to give away valuables worth over Rs 1 lakh, including a Rado watch, Nokia mobiles and an MP3 player.“The youngsters should be careful while making friends on the Internet and falling prey to such frauds,” a police officer said.The police managed to contact Suryaansh over phone soon after Puja Negi’s arrest on Sunday, but the latter anticipated trouble and threw away his SIM card. The police sources said it being a Sunday they were not able to get the tower locations of the phone number from the cellular service provider immediately. The police are now studying his call details to arrest him.The police said it was possible that many more youths like Navkaran had fallen prey to the accused.
