On 9th December (Saturday), two youths were arrested in Delhi for allegedly trying to extort money from a 19-year-old girl and her father by threatening to circulate her obscene pics on social media. The victim is reportedly the ex-girlfriend of one of the accused arrested in this case.
As per reports, one of the accused blackmailed his ex-girlfriend to pay Rs 50,000 to buy bodybuilding supplements, or else he would circulate her private photos on social media.
During interrogation, the accused told the police that he recently joined a gym and needed money to purchase imported protein powder and other supplements.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Manoj Kumar Meena said, “He wanted imported protein powder and body-building supplements which cost Rs 10,000-Rs 12,000 per box/ packet. He started threatening the woman.”
The case started after the police received a complaint in the cyber police station through National Cybercrime Reporting Portal from a 19-year-old woman. In her complaint, the victim told the police that she had been receiving threatening messages on her social media platforms from an anonymous person.
Meena added, “She told police that the accused was threatening to circulate her private pictures if she did not pay money.”
According to the Police, a team led by Inspector Pawan Tomar found that the victim had been harassed for several days but initially, she didn’t tell anyone. However, the accused somehow got her father’s number. He then sent her private pictures to him on WhatsApp.
The police officials stated that the victim’s private photos were found on the accused Ansh Sharma’s mobile phone and the anonymous social media account was also recovered.
The DCP added, “She (The victim) didn’t pay heed, so he contacted her father with her private pictures. The mobile phones of both accused persons have been seized and we recovered the private photos… they were in a hidden folder in the 19-year-old’s phone gallery. The fake Instagram ID was found in the ID logs of the app installed on the other accused’s phone.”
Police said Ansh Sharma was in a relationship with the victim previously but they had broken up. He had created an anonymous social media handle to threaten the 19-year-old, they added.
As per information shared by the DCP, the investigation team discovered that the fake ID was created at a location in Ashok Vihar. Subsequently, the police team arrested Govind (22) on December 6. He then identified the other accused, Ansh Sharma, who was also arrested on the same day.
Police said that during interrogation Sharma disclosed that he knew the complainant since she was in 6th standard through common friends.
According to the Police, both regularly contacted each other through social media in 2020. They fell into an online romantic relationship and exchanged the Instagram passwords of their accounts, however, they soon broke up.
The DCP said, “We found they had exchanged Instagram passwords. However, after they broke up, he logged into her account and checked her messages. He then found her private photos in the chats and downloaded them.”
The DCP added, “He downloaded those photos and sent them to Govind. Sharma created an anonymous account on social media and started blackmailing the victim. Mobile phones of both the accused have been recovered and seized.”
As per reports, the accused confessed to his involvement adding that he had taken a SIM card from a friend to evade arrest.
