New Delhi: The Cyber Cell, Crime Branch of Delhi Police has confirmed the arrest of one Sahid (27) in a case of sextortion, from Yamuna Nagar in Haryana.
According to Aditya Gautam, DCP, Cyber Cell, Crime: Delhi, Sahid would pose as ‘Rahul Sharma’, an employee of popular social media channel YouTube and extort victims by threatening to upload their private videos.
“He would also impersonate one Inspector Surender Kumar from the Cyber Crime Cell of Delhi. Over the years, he had sextorted hundreds of people by recording their intimate videos through WhatsApp video calls. There was a non-bailable warrant against him,” Gautam said.
According to him, an FIR was lodged on November 30, 2022, against someone claiming to be Rahul Sharma. The complainant claimed that Sharma threatened to leak his intimate videos unless he paid money. The complainant paid Rs 3,61,000 initially. He kept on receiving threatening calls though and ended up paying Rs 25 lakh more to the miscreants.
“Investigation revealed that Sahid worked as an agent for one Sandeep Aggarwal, who was arrested earlier in the same case. The modus operandi was to befriend innocent people over social media chats and then obtain photographs or videos of them in compromising positions. The extortion calls would then begin. Most people paid up to prevent any damage to their reputation,” the DCP added.
Raids were carried out at several locations in Haryana and Rajasthan and Sahid was finally arrested on Sunday. He was produced before a court that remanded him to five days of police custody. Efforts are on to arrest others involved in the racket and recover the money extorted by them.
During interrogation, Sahid allegedly claimed that he is a school dropout who barely managed to make both ends meet for himself, his wife and five children, through farming. Finally, he came in contact with one Wasim from Jaipur in Rajasthan and joined the sextortion racket run by one Mazid.
