Man held for trapping minor on Instagram, extorting money

New Delhi, Feb 5 A man has been arrested under the Pocso Act after a minor girl filed a police complaint that she was physically and mentally exploited by him after he befriended her on Instagram, Delhi Police said on Friday.

The girl also told the police that slowly on the pretext of family problems, the accused started taking money from her through Paytm.

"The accused met the victim in July 2020 at Dwarka wherein he offered her a cold drink where after she felt dizzy. He later on started extorting money from the girl, threatening to make objectionable photos of her taken during her dizziness viral on social media. The extent of threats and extortion led the girl to steal the gold ornaments of her mother to meet his demand," DCP, Dwarka, Santosh Kumar Meena, said.

The Paytm details of the girl as well as the man were obtained. Call detail record and other information from the phones was collected, technical surveillance zeroed down the latest location of the man to Haryana's Karnal and he was arrested.

Two mobile phones used in the crime were also seized.

"The accused has deleted the Instagram and WhatsApp data two days earlier but admitted to his crime. Assistance from cyber experts are being to retrieve the deleted data. Further investigation is under progress," the DCP added.

( With inputs from IANS )