New Delhi, Nov 2 A 22-year-old man was apprehended for posing as a police officer, defrauding senior citizens by displaying explicit videos of young women via WhatsApp calls, and subsequently extorting the victims by capturing screenshots of their mobile screens, a Delhi Police officer said on Thursday.
The accused was identified as Rizwan, a resident of district Deeg, Rajasthan who used to pose as Vikram Rathore, ACP from the Crime Branch.
It is worth mentioning here that Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar had played the role of an ACP named Vikram Rathore in the movie ‘Rowdy Rathore’ and the name is being frequently used by cyber cheats to dupe people.
According to the police, on July 18, a case was registered based on the complaint of T. Aggarwal, who alleged that he received an unknown WhatsApp video call featuring an undressed girl, during which a screenshot was taken, capturing the complainant's face.
Shortly afterwards, he received calls from two different numbers, with the callers claiming to be from the Delhi Cyber Crime branch and asserting that the alleged screenshot was on the verge of being circulated.
They proceeded to threaten the victim with arrest and demanded a substantial sum of money from him.
Additionally, the individuals sent the victim an image of a deceased girl and a police warrant via WhatsApp. Frightened by the threats, the complainant transferred an amount of approximately Rs. 12,80,000 to the bank account provided by the fraudster.
“During the investigation, accused Barkat Khan, a resident of Alwar, was arrested and subsequently sent to judicial custody. However, after thorough interrogation of Barkat Khan and analysing the Call Detail Records (CDR), International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, and recovered mobile phones from the accused, it became apparent that more individuals were involved in this criminal activity,” said the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Rohit Meena.
A raid was carried out in the village of Thoon, Mewat district in Rajasthan, resulting in the arrest of Rizwan and the recovery of a secondary calling device.
“Subsequently, another raid took place in the village of Nagal, where two accused individuals, Aarif and Junaid, were located. However, due to concerns about law and order, the team was unable to apprehend them at that time. Nevertheless, six mobile phones used for communicating with the victims were seized from their residence,” the DCP added.
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