Gang blackmailing teenage boys busted

Victims threatened with obscene videos

OKARA:

The police have busted a gag involved in blackmailing teenage boys after luring them by posing as girls with fake online identities.

District Police Officer (DPO) Tariq Aziz said the mastermind of the organised gang, Sakhawat, had been arrested and was being interrogated by the Gogera police.

The DPO has formed two teams under the supervision of the SHOs of the Gogera and B-Division police stations to arrest all the members of the gang.

The police said parents of the victims whose indecent videos were found in the mobile phones of the suspects would be contacted.

The DPO said most of the victims were around 15 years old.

He said the parents should keep a close eye on their children's activities, especially the use of mobile phones and computers, to ensure that they did not get in trouble.

As per a complaint filed in the Gogera police station, suspects Sakhawat and Ramzan had created a fake identity on a social media app to lure a teenage boy.

According to the complainant, Aftab Iqbal, the suspects had contacted his nephew, a student of 9th class, pretending to be a girl, from the fake account. They exchanged phone numbers with the victim and continued to engage with him through another mobile application.

The complainant stated that the prime suspect has used the fake identity of a girl and pretended to be in love with the victim, sending voice messages to him in female voice.

The teenage victim also made video calls to then suspects’ fake account. The suspects did not show their own faces and recorded compromising video clips of the victim during the calls.

The complainant stated that the suspect Ramzan made a screen recording of the video calls and demanded money and relations with the victim with the threat of sharing the clips on social media.

The victim reportedly tried to commit suicide because of the threats.

A case was registered and Gogera police contacted the suspect Sakhawat through the student, offering to pay the money in return for not uploading the video. He was arrested when he showed up to collect the money.

It was revealed during interrogation that the suspect was a resident of an area near Gogera, where worked as a medical rep. He was skilled in IT and had created three WhatsApp accounts on the same mobile SIM, along with a fake ID with the name ‘Okara Ka Baap’.

His mobile phones contained dozens of obscene videos of male and female students.

The investigation also revealed that the suspect earned money by uploading content on porn websites.

A girlfriend of the suspect was also found involved in luring the victims.

The police said they were trying to arrest the girl and the other accomplice of the arrested suspect.

Another case has also been registered against the suspects in the B-Division police station.

According to the complainant, Sheikh Asad, the suspects had recorded an objectionable video of his son, a student of ninth grade, and threatened to upload it.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2024.