Faridabad: Five held for extortion after luring victims with fake profiles of women online

Police here arrested five suspects -- including the kingpin -- over links with a sextortion racket that allegedly trapped people by creating fake profiles in the name of women on social media and online dating platforms before coercing them for money, police said on Saturday. The accused were identified as Bhagwan Singh (27), Deva Gurjar (21), Bijendra (25), Dheeraj (30) and Manish (20), residents of Rajasthan's Karoli district. ''During interrogation, it was revealed that Bhagwan Singh is the leader of the gang. The gang members would create fake profiles on Instagram and Tinder app by putting photos of girls, and lure unsuspecting victims, and have sex chat them. When they had to talk on call, Bhagwan Singh used to talk in a girl's voice. Deva Gurjar, Bijendra and Dheeraj used to do sex chat, and Manish provided accounts to deposit defrauded money,'' a Faridabad police spokesperson said. They were arrested by the cyber police station, Faridabad Central, on Friday from an apartment in Lotus White residential society in Jagatpura area of Jaipur. The accused had allegedly coerced out around Rs 45,000 from a Faridabad resident. According to the complaint filed in January, the victim allegedly received a call from a person who introduced himself as a police officer, and threatened him with filing an FIR over fraudulent transactions and sex chatting, and demanded money. The complainant was forced to transfer Rs 45,308 to a bank account provided by the frauds. Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered and police launched an investigation, which led them to the accused, the spokesperson said. Police have taken all five accused on four-day remand after they were produced in a city court on Saturday. They are being questioned to identify other associates, and further investigation is underway, he added.

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