The police identified the accused as Ganesh Singh, a native of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, and said that he was caught four months after they began investigation.The Faridabad police on Monday arrested a 42-year-old truck driver from Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh for allegedly blackmailing 85 women by sending them their morphed photos, superimposed with pornographic content, and threatening to circulate them online.
The police identified the accused as Ganesh Singh, a native of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, and said that he was caught four months after they began investigation.
On May 6 this year, a woman filed a complaint saying she had received her own morphed photo that had been superimposed with pornographic content on WhatsApp from an unknown number. The accused allegedly threatened the victim that he would circulate her photos online if she blocked him. The woman informed her husband and later filed a police complaint. A case was registered under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and a probe was initiated.
According to the police, the accused had created several social media accounts and used to download profile pictures of women from Facebook and other social media platforms.
“He would edit and morph their pictures and superimpose them on pornographic images and videos. The accused would then contact these women on Facebook messenger and send them their morphed photos,” Sube Singh, Faridabad police spokesperson, said. “He would blackmail them to elicit sexual favours. He asked them to send their nude pictures and threatened to circulate the morphed pictures if they refused to do so. Several women gave in to his demands out of fear,” Singh added.
Police said many victims did not report him to the police due to his threat of releasing doctored pictures on social media.
“Several victims told the police that they were scared and had even contemplated suicide due to his behaviour. From the phone of the accused, 485 obscene videos, which he allegedly used to blackmail women, were recovered. He claimed that he had found a SIM card at a dhaba in Rajasthan and used it to contact women. Interrogation has found that he had blackmailed at least 85 women using this modus operandi,” said Singh.
Police said a team was formed to track down the accused and raids were conducted in Ajmer, Jaipur, Nagaur, Kishangarh, Rupangarh, Dausa, Alwar and Bharatpur. “The accused would manage to escape each time. He was finally arrested after four months on Monday. The accused will be produced in a court and taken on remand,” said Singh.