Police bust sextortion racket, arrest 6 from Bengal 

In a joint action by the Anti-Extortion Squad and Dighi Police Station, six individuals were arrested on Monday for allegedly being responsible for the suicide of a 35-year-old man. The accused harassed and demanded ₹51 lakh from the victim, threatening to make his obscene photos viral on social media platforms. 

The accused have been identified as Surajkumar Singh (27), Navinkumar Ram (23), Sagar Ram (23), Murli Kevat (24), Amarkuamar Ram (19), and Dhiran Pande (25), all residents of Kolkata.  

The incident was reported on May 15 when a 35-year-old man allegedly died by suicide at his residence in Dudulgaon in Haveli. He was a design engineer at a private pipeline designing company in Pune. During the investigation, police found the accused Surajkumar, and his associates had called the deceased and by morphing his social media display picture, they asked for money from him. 

Initially, the deceased sent ₹12,000 to the accused, but the accused demanded ₹51 lakh from the victim. Hence in frustration and depression, he allegedly died by suicide at his residence.  

Sandeep Doiphode, DCP Pimpri Chinchwad Police said, “By using new sim cards, the accused used to open fake mail accounts, through which they registered these mobile numbers as call girls across various cities in India.” 

According to Doiphode, in this case, the accused contacted the deceased and by using various voice-changing applications, they spoke with him pretending to be a girl. Later the accused morphed photographs of the victim and tried to extort money. 

During the raid, police seized 15 mobile phones, 7 voice change mobiles, 40 sim cards, 14 Debit cards, eight Aadhar and PAN cards, and eight notebooks worth ₹ 4.84 lakh from the residence. A case has been registered at Dighi police station under IPC sections 360,385,34 and section 67 (a) of the Information Technology Act.