Sextortion Racket Busted; ‘Pay, Or Will Release Sex Video’ Was Modus Operandi

New Delhi: A man who had been running a sextortion racket for several years was finally caught on Thursday.

Mahendra Singh, who blackmailed several people across India, was nabbed by Delhi Police in Haryana’s Mewat.

It was after a Delhi man lodged a complaint of blackmail that the culprit came under police radar.

According to police, the victim had received a call from a woman, who lured him to an intimate video call.

Mahendra then called the victim posing as Assistant Commissioner of Police Ram Pandey, and demanded Rs 9 lakh from the man to delete the video, in which the victim was naked.

Despite the scared victim paying up the amount, Mahendra called him again and demanded Rs 15 lakh this time to not pursue the case. And if he didn’t give the money, Mahendra threatened to send the man’s family to jail.

The victim, who didn’t initially tell anyone about the blackmailer, later confided in a friend, who advised him to lodge a police complaint.

Once the victim went to cops, they launched a probe and had to spend quite a few days before hunting down Mahendra from Mewat. A swipe machine, a pen drive, a 16 GB memory card and an iPhone were seized from his possession.

There were several other people who were blackmailed by Mahendra in similar manner, he confessed to police.

The 36-year-old culprit said that while calling victims, he would use the name ACP Ram Pandey or call himself a YouTuber and threaten to make their objectionable videos public.