Goa police arrest man from Bengaluru for cyber bullying woman and extortion

PTI, May 19, 2024, 1:30 PM IST

The Goa cyber crime police have arrested a man from Bengaluru on charges of cyber bullying a woman and extortion after posting a fake job advertisement online, an official said on Sunday.

Following a complaint by the Goa-based woman, the cyber crime team arrested the accused, Mohan Raj V (29), on Saturday after laying a trap, a police spokesperson said.

The victim in her complaint claimed the accused published a fake job advertisement for a vacancy at a foreign bank and contacted her through a chatting app, he said.

”The accused lured her into attending an online interview via video call, during which some persons, posing as representatives of the company, coerced her to undress, recorded the video and took screenshots,” the spokesman said.

The accused then began to blackmail the woman, demanding sexual favours to delete the compromising material, he said.

The woman alleged that the accused harassed her for the past two months and demanded she meet him in Bengaluru or else he would make her videos and pictures public. A team led by Superintendent of Police Rahul Gupta travelled to Bengaluru with the victim and laid a trap. ”After extensive efforts and a long chase, the accused was apprehended when he arrived to meet the victim,” the spokesperson said.

Police said the accused has confessed to his crime. ”The chats and videos of the victim recorded on the phone of the accused were recovered. The phone will be sent for a cyber forensic examination,” he said.

The investigation suggested the accused created fake accounts using VPN phone numbers and posted fraudulent job offers targeting female victims.

”They (the arrested person and others) randomly contacted women, induced them to participate in online interviews with promises of high salary packages, and then recorded their objectionable images and videos. These recordings were subsequently used to blackmail the victims for sexual gratification,” he said.

After the woman’s complaint, the police on April 30 registered a case against unidentified persons.

Following the arrest, the accused was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 354 A (sexual harassment), 384 (extortion) and provisions of the Information Technology Act, the police said.