Man accused of blackmailing 100 women arrested in Delhi

A 26-year-old man, accused of blackmailing at least 100 women, has been arrested in Delhi for trying to extort money from a south Delhi resident by allegedly blackmailing her with threats of circulating her indecent photographs on the social media.

According to the police, accused Sumit Jha has been arrested earlier in similar cases in Chhattisgarh and has confessed to the crime. He used to demand money and pictures of his victims’ private parts, they said, adding that the mobile phone used to trap women has also been recovered.

In her complaint, based on which a case of extortion, sexual harassment and criminal intimidation was filed, the Delhi woman said the accused “hacked into her account on Instagram” and said he would post her nude pictures if she did not meet his demand for money.

He also demanded money from people in her contact list, the complaint read.

The Delhi Police’s Cyber Cell started a detailed inquiry to track the accused, who using internet calling facilities to cover his tracks.

The Cyber Cell sought technical details from Instagram and tracked the accused based on details given by the telecom service provider.

According to the police, to blackmail and extort money from women, Jha used to take their profile pictures from their social media accounts, morph them and create fake profiles.

He would then allegedly send his targets a threatening message stating that their nude pictures were with him. When his targets sought proof, he would send their morphed picture to scare them, the police said.
Jha is a graduate who currently lives in Noida, and had learnt phishing techniques, the police said.