Man Threatens Banker With Private Video, Extorts Rs 12 Lakh; Arrested

A 25-year-old man was arrested for allegedly extorting close to Rs 12 lakh from a person threatening to leak a private video of him, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Abdul, a resident of Alwar in Rajasthan, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (west) Akshat Kaushal said.

The victim, a bank manager, had approached the police on March 23, complaining someone forced him to shell out almost Rs 12 lakh after recording a video of him removing clothes on the sly.

According to the man's complaint, he had accepted a Facebook friend request from a woman around one month ago and started chatting with her, Kaushal said.

The woman at some point asked him for some money saying she needed it urgently and the victim gave her Rs 3,000.

On March 19, the man received a video call from the woman. During the call, she removed her clothes, and asked him to take his clothes too, the officer said.

Next day, the victim got a call from a man who said he was a police officer. He told him to speak to another man, who, he said, was from YouTube.

The man from phone extorted 11,93,000 from the victim on the pretext of deleting his video and preventing it from being uploaded on YouTube, police said.

Abdul after his arrest revealed that he, along with his brother-in-law, used to make WhatsApp video calls to people and play a video of a naked woman using a second mobile phone, they said.

They used to provoke the victim to do the same and then record the screen of the video call and extort money from him by threatening to circulate the video on social media, police said.

They purchased SIM cards and mobiles phones from West Bengal and managed the fraud bank accounts with the help of other accused, police said, adding they have found the money trail of over Rs 18 lakh.

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