Aide of ex-Karnataka CM attends video call, loses Rs 6.8 lakh to sextortion | Bengaluru News – Times of India
Sanjay (name changed), a Malleswaram resident, said he was coming out of the bathroom after having a shower in a guest house in Nashik, Maharashtra, when he attended a video call. The same was allegedly used to extort Rs 6.8 lakh from him. When the fraudsters demanded more money, Sanjay met the Bengaluru city police commissioner and got a complaint registered with cybercrime police.
Sanjay, in his complaint, said that he had been to Nashik on some work on June 12 and stayed in a guest house. Around 8pm, he took a shower and came out of the bathroom. While he was drying himself up with a towel, he got a video call from an unknown number. Sanjay claimed that when he attended the call, there was a woman and a man, both unknown to him, on the other side. He further said that before he could disconnect the call, the callers themselves hung up.
Sanjay told police that he assumed someone must have called him by mistake and ignored it. However, around 1pm next day, he got a call from an unknown number. The caller introduced himself as Mahendra Singh and claimed that he was a reporter with a national Hindi news channel. The caller said that he had received a complaint from a woman about Sanjay making a video call to her and stripping himself. The caller demanded money saying he’d otherwise upload Sanjay’s video clipping on YouTube, Facebook and other platforms.
Sanjay realised that the couple who had made the video call to him on June 12 had recorded him. Singh assured Sanjay of deleting the video after receiving the money. Sanjay transferred Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 50,000 to two accounts provided by the caller.
On July 14, Sanjay, who was still in Nashik, received calls from four unknown numbers. The caller was the same in all numbers and introduced himself as Dinesh Kumar, special officer of CBI. He too claimed that a woman had complained to him about Sanjay talking to her nude on video call. He asked Sanjay to send money to two bank accounts in the name of Ratnesh Kumar. Sanjay paid Rs 2 lakh to one account and Rs 2.8 lakh to another as demanded by the caller.
The miscreants again called Sanjay and demanded an additional Rs 7.2 lakh. Sanjay, who had run out of money, rushed back to Bengaluru on July 15 and approached B Dayananda, commissioner of police. He was told to lodge a complaint with cybercrime police, which he did on July 18. Sanjay did not respond to TOI’s requests for comment.
