Gang blackmailing men busted in Lucknow

LUCKNOW: Police busted a gang that duped several men across the country while probing a complaint lodged by a victim in the state capital and arrested one accused.
A man suffering from cancer lodged a complaint at the Talkatora police station stating that a gang was blackmailing him and had extorted Rs 52 lakh from him.
The complainant said that he had registered on a website offering domestic help at cheap rates after which some women called him multiple times and sought replies to various questions that appeared innocuous. Later, they compiled a video recording in a way that it appeared to be sleazy and started blackmailing him.
ACP, Bazaarkhala, Anil Kumar Yadav, said, “The gang runs a website offering services like house helps, physiotherapists, nurses, caregivers at very cheap rates as a trap. When people looking for these services search on the internet, they find their website offering very cheap rates.”
“The user is prompted to fill in his details after which a female agent calls up to inquire about the requirements. The female agent starts calling frequently, turns friendly and starts asking various questions on video calls. The customer is then asked to pay a small amount online for registration after which they start getting blackmailing calls,” Yadav added.
As soon as the victims ignore calls the agents issue threats that their names have been saved in their dating website and they have recording.
The fraudsters showed the sleazy video of the victim and threatened to send it to his family members and friends along with the online payment details to defame him and asked the victim, a cancer patient, to pay money for deleting the video, said Yadav.
“The gang extorted Rs 52 lakh from the victim in this manner and demanded more. When the victim had no money left, he even thought of committing suicide but then lodged a complaint,” the ACP said.
We started a probe and tracked them through surveillance, but they kept changing their location frequently to evade arrest, said police officials.
A police team finally arrested one accused Sandeep Mandal from North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, and recovered Rs 50 lakh in cash from him.
During questioning Mandal revealed that Neha, Sonali Rai, and Vishal were other members of the gang and they had duped 24 men from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Assam.
Efforts are on to nab other accused, the ACP said.