NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Monday busted four people who allegedly extort money from the people after threatening to leak a nude video viral on social sites. One of the members of the gang first befriended the victim on an LGBTQ+ dating app, police said on Monday.
The police identified the accused as Vikas Sharma(26), Anshu Kumar(21), Ashutosh (23) and Shivam Kumar (24). The Police had received a complaint from a 20-year-old boy who had claimed that he met a boy on an online LGBTQ+ dating app called BLUED.
“When the complainant went to meet the boy, three other boys suddenly entered the room and started posing as if they were making the video and demanded money, threatening to make his video viral,” the victim stated in his complaint.
When the boy denied to give them money, the accused took his phone and transferred the available amount of `12,700 into their own account. They asked for more money but when the demand was not fulfilled, they took his scooty and mobile phone and fled.
“The boy with whom he made the friendship on the dating app was also involved in the crime,” said the complainant. During their probe, the police traced the victim’s mobile phone’s location to Ashok Nagar. The scooty was found parked in front of a house. After further investigation, the police nabbed a person named Shivam Kumar who confessed to the crime, also naming his gang members who were at his house for a party.
“The accused, Vikas Sharma, disclosed that he along with other accused members planned to extort people who are interested in dating through the online app,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdra) R Sathya Sundram said. Previous involvement of all these accused persons in similar and other crimes are being verified, Sundram added. All the accused have been sent to jail on judicial custody.