A 77-year-old senior citizen recently became a victim of sextortion when he received a video call on a social media platform from a woman he had befriended on Facebook. The woman claimed that she had recorded a video call that showed the woman in a compromising position making a call to the victim and demanded an extortion to keep mum. A case has been recorded at Khar Police station and investigation is underway.
According to police, the septuagenarian, a Khar resident, is an avid art blogger and is fairly active on the social media. He often receives friend requests from profiles of unknown people and he accepts them thinking they might be his blog readers and connects with them. On November 10, when the complainant had gone for a family vacation at Goa, he had received the friend request of a woman, who identified herself as Mansi Patil and sent him a 'hi' message on the messenger.
After the complainant replied, she asked the art blogger to exchange numbers, but he was hesitant. When she shared her own mobile number, the septuagenarian too gave his contact details. Soon after the senior shared his mobile number, the woman messaged if she could make a video call to him, to which the former refused. On November 12, however, Patil made a video call at night, and on the pretext of asking how she was looking, began stripping.
Shocked, the septuagenarian immediately disconnected the call. A couple of days later, on November 14, the senior received a message from the woman, asking him to do a recharge of ₹249 on her phone, but the complainant claimed he did not know how to do it. Following this, Patil asked the complainant to pay ₹249 via internet banking, which he complied.
The next day, on November 15, he received a video call from Patil, wherein she was sitting in a compromising position. While the senior disconnected the call, Patil allegedly threatened him with a video of the septuagenarian engaging in a obscene video call and that she would show the video to his friends, family if he does not comply by her wishes.
Realising that he was being forced into sextortion, the septuagenarian approached Khar Police and lodged a complaint, on the basis of which a case was registered on Saturday. While police have booked the unknown accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act, no arrests have been made yet and a probe is underway.
