Preliminary probe suggests that hotel staff were not involved in the racket, the police said.
Four people have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Noida for allegedly recording intimate moments of couples by placing hidden cameras in rooms of hotels.
The group would then blackmail the couples and threaten to leak the videos if they did not pay up, said police. Preliminary probe suggests that hotel staff were not involved in the racket, they added.
Members of the group allegedly booked rooms online and placed hidden cameras in the rooms before checking out, the police said. After a few days, they checked in again and took the cameras. They then contacted the targeted couple, police said.
The four people - Vishnu Singh, Abdul Wahav, Pankaj Kumar and Anurag Kumar Singh - are reported to be part of three different gangs operating in Noida. These groups were involved in a number of illegal activities, including unauthorized call centers and providing fake sim cards for illegal activities.
Eleven laptops, 21 mobiles and 22 ATM cards are among the items seized during the raid, the police officials said, adding that the gang is reported to have operations across the country. One of the gang members is on the run and efforts are being made to arrest him.
"The accused Vishnu and Abdul Wahav used to send videos of intimate moments to the couple's phone and demand money from them, threatening to post the videos online if there demands were not met. The third accused, Pankaj, used to provide the registered SIM and account registered in the name of other persons for the extortion money," senior cop Saad Mian Khan said, explaining the gang's modus operandi.