After being accosted on Facebook by a woman, the 26-year-old man shed his clothes on webcam at her behest; within hours, she uploaded the video and demanded Rs 10,000 for its removal
Mumbai, May 28 (Mid-day) : A virtual strip show landed a 26-year-old software engineer in some very real trouble, when the woman for whom the seductive display had been staged via webcam, leaked the footage in the form of a video clip on YouTube.
The Bhandup police are also investigating the matter and are on the lookout for the woman’s associate, who seems to have masterminded the online encounter and the extortion that followed.
According to the police, the woman and the complainant met on Facebook on April 2. The engineer, in his statement to the police, said, “I came back home from work on April 1 and went to bed.
Since I couldn’t sleep, I logged into my Facebook account at 3 am. I found a message waiting for me in my inbox from the profile of a certain Dimple Shirali.”
After checking her profile on Facebook, the complainant replied to the message and they started chatting. The woman said she was a model based in Karnataka.
“Later, Dimple asked me to come to a website called Omegle, where we started chatting face-to-face via webcam. She then asked me to undress before the webcam, saying she was curious to see how I looked. She subsequently demanded that I strip completely,” he added in his police statement.
The software engineer wasn’t aware that he was being videotaped the whole time. “After exposing my private parts, I asked her to log on to Facebook.
But, she didn’t come online. Instead, she sent me a message at 3.17 am, which contained a Youtube link. Clicking on the link, I was shocked to discover that she had posted the video of me stripping,” the complainant said.
In exchange for removing the video, the accused demand a payment of R10,000 and even gave him an account number, to which the desperate man transferred the amount the very next day. Eager to put the encounter behind him, he blocked her on Facebook.
On April 23, however, the woman sent a message to his brother, saying ‘You blocked me on Facebook even before I could give any confirmation.
So, I need another Rs 5,000.’ The complainant added, “I got another message on my mobile phone on April 25, in which she threatened to upload the video on Youtube again. I checked the number on Truecaller, which confirmed that the SIM card was registered under the name of one Nikhil Shetty.”
The victim then lodged a complaint with the Bhandup police station. Senior PI Prashant Marde said, “We are investigating the case and have asked for help from the Cyber Crime police.”
The accused has been booked under sections 294 (obscene acts and songs), 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC, as well as Section 66E of the IT Act.