Lucknow: Two thieves used an innovative idea to extort money after surfing online platforms to obtain a private video of a private firm owner by replacing his office CCTV’s digital video recorder (DVR) with a spy camera in Gomtinagar extension.
A police team led by Gomtinagar extension inspector Sudhir Kumar Awasthi, while working on solving the theft of DVR case, solved the mystery behind the extortion by arresting the two miscreants.
Those arrested were identified as Alok Yadav (30) and Ashuvendra Rajput aka Manish (28), both of Gomtinagar Vistar. The police seized two mobile phones and a DVR CD from them. Both the miscreants have passed class 8 and are known to the complainant in the theft case.
The inspector said the firm owner had initially filed a complaint about the theft of the DVR from his office and the police were investigating the case. A few days later, the complainant received an extortion message in which the caller demanded money, threatening to share his private video.
Awasthi said they were surprised to learn that the complainant had received the extortion message from an unidentified mobile number. They began investigating the theft case from this angle and zeroed in on a man who used a keypad mobile phone. The man was questioned and revealed that the miscreants had used his phone in exchange for a few drinks a few days earlier.
The police acted on the lead and arrested the miscreants. During interrogation, the miscreants admitted to their crime.
Explaining their modus operandi, the inspector said the miscreants first stole the DVR of the CCTV installed at the complainant’s office. They then destroyed the footage in which they were seen entering the office and stealing the DVR. The miscreants then bought a spy camera from an online website and tried to install it in the empty box where the DVR had been kept before they stole it, but they were unsuccessful. When they were unable to do so, they placed an empty set-top box in place of the DVR box and inserted the spy camera in it. After the complainant’s video was recorded, they obtained it on their mobile phone.
The miscreants then created a WhatsApp account using the mobile number of the man to whom they had offered liquor and through this WhatsApp account they sent the video to the victim demanding extortion money, while threatening to share it.
