The men are from Rajasthan and have targeted people from several states.
When a 71-year-old Delhi doctor got a video call at midnight, he assumed it was a patient calling about an emergency, but was surprised to find a woman in a compromising position on the other end. A video of his interaction on the call with the woman was recorded and what followed was a long cycle of extortion and blackmail, in which the doctor ended up transferring nearly Rs 9 lakh to a sextortion gang, police said on Thursday.
Having endured the ordeal for a long time, the doctor finally registered a case with the Delhi Police, which has led to the arrest of two brothers from Rajasthan. The men, who ran a sextortion racket, are suspected to have blackmailed 25 other people using the same playbook.
An official said the doctor had approached the Cyber Police Station in East District and complained that he had endured repeated video calls and blackmail from a gang which was threatening to leak a video of his call with the woman on social media. He told the police that he had transferred nearly Rs 8.6 lakh to the gang but the calls and demands did not cease.
Investigation
After registering a case under sections related to cheating, criminal intimidation and extortion, among others, the police began its investigation.
"We started tracing and surveilling the numbers from which the calls were made to the doctor. We finally managed to get a lead and an identity of a person from Rajasthan. Informers helped us verify this information and told us that the person was part of an extortion racket. We raided his house last week and arrested him and his brother," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (East District) Apoorva Gupta.
"Seven phones have been recovered from their possession, including the device used to make the original video call, and the phone and SIM card used to make the extortion call," she added.
The brothers have been identified as 39-year-old Abdul Rehman, who has a wife and three children, and his brother Aamir Khan, 26, who are residents of the Mewat area in Deeg district, Rajasthan. They were remanded in police custody for five days.
During the investigation, a money trail was also established and it was discovered that the funds had been transferred to various bank accounts in Haryana, Punjab, and Maharashtra. These bank accounts had been opened digitally, bypassing know your customer (KYC) verification.
More Victims
"A study of the bank accounts has led us to suspect that the gang had 25 other victims. We are gathering information on other associates of the two brothers," said DCP Gupta.
Apart from four other victims from Delhi, the others are from Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The officer said three other criminals involved in sextortion, who taught the brothers what they know, have also been identified. They are from the same village as the brothers.