New Delhi, Feb 25 (PTI) A 27-year-old man has been arrested for blackmailing people by posing as a YouTube employee and threatening to upload their private videos on the platform, police said

Sahid, a native of Rajasthan's Bharatpur, was nabbed from Yamunanagar in Haryana on February 23, they said.

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A case was registered against Sahid on November 11, 2022, after a complainant reported that a man claiming to be a YouTube employee by the name of Rahul Sharma called him up and demanded money to prevent the release of an objectionable video involving him on social media, a police official said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Aditya Gautam said, "Investigations revealed that Rahul Sharma was acting as an agent of one Sandeep Aggarwal, who was arrested earlier. He and a gang of cyber fraudsters had orchestrated the extortion plan."

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The officer further said the complainant transferred Rs 28.61 lakh to multiple bank accounts over a period of time.

"Further probe revealed that the complainant had been targeted by cybercriminals who had befriended him on social media and obtained compromising photos and videos which were then used to blackmail him," the DCP added.

Sahid was arrested on February 23 and remanded in five-day police custody.

During interrogation, the accused, a father of five, disclosed that he had studied up to class 3 and lost both his parents during childhood. He worked as a farmer in the past and was struggling to meet his family's daily needs which led him to join the extortion gang, the police officer said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)