‘Sextortion’ racket busted in Delhi’s Paschim Vihar

New Delhi: An alleged ‘sextortion’ gang has been busted with the arrest of its kingpin accused of extorting about `1.2 crore from over a dozen people in the last one year, police here said on Sunday. The accused and his associates approached “rich-looking” men on Facebook with fake profiles of women and would honey trap them, they said. The gang sent “friend requests” to their targets using fake profiles and talked to them posing as women on Facebook Messenger app and WhatsApp, police said. According to police, the matter came to light when of the victim’s approached police in November alleging that he was set up by the gang which extorted `300,000 from him. He said he had paid `1.5 lakh in cash and another `1.5 lakh via a bank account transfer to the accused. The gang operated its activities from a flat it had taken on rent in Paschim Vihar. The flat was located and its landlord was also interrogated, a senior police officer said. Dheeraj Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) said that on the basis of technical surveillance, the gang was tracked and its kingpin was identified as one Neeraj of Bahadurgarh, Haryana. A trap was laid and Neeraj was nabbed on Friday near PVR Cinema, Sector-14, Prashant Vihar, Rohini, he said. The accused confessed extorting money from over a dozen people in the last one-andhalf years with the help of other gang members, which include two women, Kumar said. He said they would profile their victims based on their net worth and then would proceed to honey trap them. The gang extorted `510 lakh from each victim, the senior officer said.