"she would show the chat conversations to his wife."
Indian man Ahmed Shamshul Haq, aged 32, from Mumbai, was arrested on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, for blackmailing a businessman.
Haq, who is an MBA graduate, impersonated a woman and exchanged messages with the director of a multinational company. He then tried to extort money from the victim.
According to police, the victim met Haq at a party in 2017. They later became good friends and exchanged contact details.
Haq claimed that he knew several models and shared the number of a woman with the victim, who was interested in getting to know the model further.
However, the victim was unaware that it was Haq who was pretending to be the woman.
The ‘woman’ contacted the businessman on WhatsApp and two began speaking to each other. Over time, they began exchanging intimate messages and pictures but had never met.
Once the victim shared the pictures, Haq acted as the woman to blackmail the man into giving him money.
Meanwhile, Haq would meet the director every alternate day and would ask him for money under the pretext of a cash crunch. Haq would then promise to pay him back in a few months.
The suspect had received Rs. 8 Lakh (£8,800) using this method.
After the director began ignoring the demands from the ‘model’, she threatened to show their conversations to his wife.
A police officer said: “The victim claimed that they had intimate conversations, based on which the woman demanded extortion.
“She told the victim to pay money, else she would show the chat conversations to his wife.”
The business director then told Haq what was happening and he claimed that he had not shared his contact number with anyone else.
The police officer later explained:
“Haq told him that he would find the model and convince her to delete all the pictures.
“However, Haq later told the director that the model was demanding Rs. 35 Lakh (£38,000)to delete everything from her phone.”
The director said that he would pay the money only if he met her, but the messages were ignored.
He then became suspicious and went to the police. They filed an FIR under sections 384 and 385 (extortion) of the IPC.
The Crime Branch’s Cyber Cell discovered that it was Haq who had been posing as the woman to chat with the victim.
A meeting was arranged between Haq and the victim in order for him to receive the money. Police officers then intercepted and arrested Haq as he arrived.
Haq was found carrying two mobile phones which were used to speak to the victim as well as other businessmen when impersonating a woman.
The investigation revealed that another four people working in multinational companies had been scammed by Haq. He has been remanded in police custody until April 30, 2019.
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