The Mumbai Crime Branch said on Friday that they had arrested a 28-year-old man who was reportedly involved in at least 39 sextortion cases across the country. The accused was arrested on January 26 in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area by a team of officials from the crime branch's unit 4.
According to the police, at least 326 sextortion complaints have been lodged against him, which are being investigated further.
The police said that the Mumbai Crime Branch had been working on information on the suspect, who had been allegedly cheating people online by offering them prostitution services online, through social media and a website. The modus operandi of the suspect included cheating the customers who reached out to his contact numbers. The customers who contacted the suspect for online services from call centres through a video call were blackmailed after the calls were over, the police said.
"On the video call, the customers' videos were allegedly recorded, which were objectionable." "The suspect then threatened to make the videos viral if he was not paid a certain amount," an official said.
According to the police, a victim filed a complaint at Antophill Police Station in the eastern suburbs last year. The police have been investigating the matter and trying to locate and nab the culprit since then. The number of the suspect was traced via technical analysis by the team of Mumbai Crime Branch officials.
"On January 26, the officials got information that the suspect was coming to the Ghatkopar area to meet someone." "They immediately laid a trap and nabbed him from the Asalfa area of Ghatkopar," the official added.
The police added that with his arrest, they found at least 39 cases filed against him throughout the country, including 35 in Telangana, two in Jharkhand, one in Maharashtra, and one in Delhi.