Trader posed as girl online to extort money

Officials of the Crime Branch's Property Cell recently arrested a 30-year-old for trying to extort Rs 80,000 from a Sion resident. The arrested accused was identified as Nikhil Lala, a garment trader in Ahmedabad.

Police officials said that Lala posed as a girl on the internet and used to chat with the victim. Later, with the help of Splitcamera software, Lala showed the victim some fake photos and videos of a girl, stating that it was him. Based on this interaction, even the victim showed Lala some of his nude pictures during a video chat session.

Senior Police Inspector Nandkumar Gopale of the Property Cell said, "A few days later, Lala called the victim and disclosed that he was a man and fooled him by showing fake photos and videos. He threatened the victim that he would post his videos on Facebook if he did not pay him Rs 80,000." The victim then lodged a complaint at Sion police station following which the Property cell traced Lala's whereabouts to Ahmedabad. u00a0