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Denying bail, the tribunal noted that fraudsters often impact minors successful specified operations arsenic the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, imposes lighter punishments connected them. (Express File Photo)
Observing that sextortion is presently the astir often reported signifier of image-based intersexual abuse, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has denied bail to a pistillate accused of blackmailing a 73-year-old doc successful Haryana and extorting Rs 1.34 crore from him.
Justice Sandeep Moudgil noted that sextortion, a signifier of online blackmail, has been increasing since 2021, peculiarly owed to the emergence successful online societal interactions during the lockdowns. “Predators manipulate victims, often teenagers, into explicit activities implicit video, secretly grounds them, and past endanger to marque the footage nationalist unless fiscal demands are met. This usurpation feeds connected victims’ shame, starring to devastating affectional consequences, including cases wherever victims person taken their ain lives,” helium said.
The lawsuit against the accused
According to the complaint, the doc received a WhatsApp video telephone connected August 8, 2024, from a pistillate identified arsenic Kavita Aggarwal. Following her instructions, helium went to the bath and undressed, during which she allegedly recorded an obscene video of him. She initially demanded Rs 5,000, but the adjacent day, helium received different video telephone from a antheral successful a constabulary uniform, claiming to beryllium a elder CBI officer. The caller threatened to marque the video viral connected YouTube and societal media unless helium transferred wealth to designated slope accounts.
Exploiting the doctor’s fear, the accused reportedly extorted Rs 1,34,65,500 done aggregate transactions via RTGS. The doc aboriginal lodged a ailment connected the National Cyber Crime Portal connected August 31, 2024.
During the investigation, constabulary recovered that the pistillate accused, on with a juvenile accomplice, had blackmailed the complainant and funneled the extorted wealth done aggregate accounts. A sum of Rs 6 lakh was recovered from the accused woman’s location successful Jaipur. Authorities alleged that she deposited the extortion wealth successful different people’s slope accounts, taking a committee earlier handing implicit the remaining sum to co-conspirators.
Court’s reasoning for denying bail
The woman, seeking bail, argued that she was not named successful the FIR, was illiterate, and had been falsely implicated solely due to the fact that she was the woman of the main accused. The prosecution, however, contended that granting her bail astatine this signifier could hinder the investigation.
Denying bail, the tribunal noted that fraudsters often impact minors successful specified operations arsenic the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, imposes lighter punishments connected them. “It is concerning that adolescents are being utilized successful these scams arsenic seasoned criminals get caught,” Justice Moudgil observed.
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The seat further stated that releasing the accused could obstruct the investigation, fixed the “well-orchestrated conspiracy of sextortion” involved. The tribunal besides highlighted that galore akin cases had been reported connected the National Cyber Crime Portal, indicating that this was portion of a larger signifier of transgression enactment alternatively than an isolated incident.
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