BHUBANESWAR: The Punjab National Bank (PNB) official found dead in Odisha in August this year died by suicide after being blackmailed by a five-member gang from Rajasthan which first initiated a nude video call with the bank official and later threatened to implicate him in a pornography case, the Subarnapur district police said on Monday.
“Mehboob, 31, and his associate Adil, 19, from Alwar district of Rajasthan were the two who blackmailed the bank officer,” Subarnapur superintendent of police (SP) Amaresh Panda told reporters.
Panda said the two extorted ₹26 lakh in 40 transactions from the bank official who jumped off a bridge into Ang river in the western Odisha district on August 10 after being unable to meet the demands of the gang. His body was found three days later on August 13.
The officer said he transferred money to 11 bank accounts between June 21 and August 9.
The Subarnapur district started investigating his death on a complaint by the PNB official’s father, who told the police that his son was being blackmailed by a gang.
Deputy SP Satyajit Mishra who supervised the investigation said: “The scammers made a WhatsApp video call to him and the moment he picked up the phone, a nude woman appeared on the screen. The scammers had played the video of a women undressing on another mobile phone and kept it close to the phone used to make the video call to bank officer. The call continued for 10-15 seconds. Minutes later, Mehboob called up the bank officer impersonating as a Dy SP from th Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and threatened him to implicate him in a pornography case. This scared the bank officer..”
The bank officer agreed to pay a few thousand rupees in bribe to Mehboob through PhonePe app which he did. The payments and the demands continued for the next two months, said Mishra.
The officer also used the ₹10 lakh bank overdraft facility that he was eligible for as an officer. “At times, he even borrowed from friends to pay the blackmailers,” said Mishra.
A team of the Subarnapur police tracked the main accused Mehboob with help from the Bhiwadi police. Mishra said Mehboob was accused in five-six other criminal cases and had been involved in other cyber crimes as well. “Though he is illiterate, he has managed to build a house in his village from proceeds of cybercrime… He and his gang scour social media for phone numbers of potential victims,” said Mishra.
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