Man held for stalking and extorting from Saudi doc
Mumbai Crime Branch unit 3 has arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly stalking and extorting money from a Saudibased Indian medical officer late on Saturday evening. The accused, identified as Mohammad Tabish Irshad Ahmed Malik (25), had transferred all data including photos, videos and contact from the complainant’s phone and misused her photos to blackmail her for money. Crime branch officials arrested Malik from his home-town in Uttar Pradesh and booked him under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology act.
According to police sources, the complainant, a native of Jammu-Kashmir, was employed with a Saudibased hospital as a medical officer, was staying in Taif city of Saudi Arabia with her husband, who is also a doctor. In October last year, when the couple had gone shopping in a garment mall in Taif, they met Malik who was working as a salesman in the mall. Having connected as a fellow Indian, Malik shared his ordeals of low income with the complainant and out of compassion the complainant began calling him for get-togethers.
Earlier this year, when the complainant was shifting in a different house at Taif, Malik saw the complainant’s phone lying on the table. Jumping on the opportunity, Malik transferred all the data from the complainant's phone and soon applied for an exit visa, following which he returned to India.
Police added, soon after he left Saudi, he began blackmailing the complainant to pay him Rs Two lakh or he will send her morphed pictures to all her colleagues and upload the same on social media. When she declined the demands, Malik sent a few pictures to the complainant’s colleague through a mobile application ‘TEXTNOW’ after which she made an online transfer of Rs 20,000 to Malik’s bank account. But Malik’s demands were to see no end, which compelled the complainant couple to fly back to India and register a complaint with Meghwadi police. Looking at the sensitivity of the case, it was transferred to Crime Branch unit 3.
A team led by police inspector Sanjay Nikumbe began the investigation and traced the Internet Protocol (IP) address and traced Malik’s address from the bank account details. Police inspector Nikumbe said, "Since he was using the application ‘TEXTNOW’, which uses various mobile numbers to send messages, it was difficult to track him. However, his bank account details provided us with an address in Barreily, Uttar Pradesh. Soon after that we sent a team and arrested Malik. He was brought to Mumbai on Saturday and was produced in holiday court.