Bengaluru, Oct 12 (IANS): The Karnataka Cyber Crime Division has arrested four persons involved in extortion after recording nude videos of the victims by becoming friends on social media platforms, an official statement said on Tuesday.

The arrested persons were identified as Sakir, Pahari, Kasam Khan, Jamil Khan.

They were arrested based on the leads which emerged during the investigation. Nayaz Ahmed, Police Inspector, C.C.D and his team went to Bharatpur, Alwar and other places in Rajasthan and were successful in arresting an accused person from the limits of Pahari police station in Bharatpur district, and two more culprits from the limits of Baithkul police station, Alwar district.

The arrests were made in connection with two 'sextortion' incidents reported at the Cyber Crime Police Station, CID in February and March 2021. Several people from Rajasthan and Haryana have been arrested for their involvement in this case.

During the course of the investigation, it was learnt that the culprits targeted the people who are on social media such as Facebook, Instagram etc., and gathered their personal information.

They sent a 'friend' request in the guise of a woman, befriended them on social media and started chatting with them. Later they took the victims on video calls impersonating as a girl through malafide applications, induced the victims to strip and made their videos without their knowledge.

After this, they started to extort the victims by threatening to share the images and videos doctored in an obscene manner with the victims' friends and relatives on social media and harm their image and reputation in society.

In case of any such instance of blackmail, the Cyber Crime Division has appealed to the public to report it to the Cyber Crime and CEN Police Stations immediately.