Cybercrime of a new sort in Silchar; Naked video call followed by blackmail, man lodges FIR

On one side when the entire country is dealing with devastation, there are miscreants trying to trap people, on the other end. Cachar has reported 90 COVID cases yesterday and the district has more than 550 active cases. In such a scenario, phone calls become extremely important, especially for healthcare workers.

On Sunday, Deep Raj a senior technician in Silchar Medical College and Hospital’s plasma and blood bank received a friend request from Riya Sharma on Facebook. He accepted it as he often gets friend requests from potential donors. Deep Raj has his phone number put up on Facebook again for the benefit of the blood donors and recipients.

On Sunday, he received a video call on WhatsApp which he accepted. To his dismay, there was a naked girl on the other side of the call on camera. “She was vulgar and was making obscene gestures. I immediately shut my camera and asked her what the hell was she up to. Within a few seconds, the call was disconnected,” informed Deep Raj.

He added that before he could understand what happened, he got a video on WhatsApp from an unknown number. “The video was edited. It featured me without clothes having a conversation with the naked girl which was not the actual case. The person who sent me the video started blackmailing me. The man threatened to make the video viral if I do not pay a huge sum of money,” informed Deep Raj.

There were many such calls from different numbers. As Deep Raj kept blocking the unknown numbers, the miscreants started reaching out to his family members on Facebook messenger. Considering the gravity of the situation, Deep Raj went and lodged a Police complaint at Silchar Sadar Police Station. “The miscreants didn’t give a damn about the complaint and in fact, went on to say that go to Police or politicians, unless we get the money, the video will become viral,” informed Deep Raj.

He was not very satisfied with the Police’s reaction. According to his statement, the Police asked him to simply ignore the threat calls and messages.

But who is Riya Sharma, where is she from and how is she function so openly in Silchar is something that needs deeper investigation is what Deep Raj believes.