Man arrested for extorting money posing as sales tax dept official

A 42-year-old man was arrested for allegedly attempting to extort money from his acquaintances using international phone numbers and posing as an officer of the Sales Tax Department, the police said today.

Three persons had been receiving text messages and videos on their WhatsApp numbers from an international number with the sender was claiming to be an official of the Sales Tax Department.

The sender claimed that the complainants had committed tax irregularities by misdeclaration and not paying taxes, the police said.

The sender also sent images and videos of government files to establish his credentials as a government official. Later, he started demanding a large amount of money from the complainants to settle the issue.

Police zeroed down on the location of the suspect. It was found that the suspect was active in west Delhi's Hari Nagar area and the accused, Naval Kishore, was nabbed.

During interrogation, he confessed his involvement in the crime and was subsequently arrested.

Later, the phone along with SIM used in the crime was recovered.

The application used for creating International Whatsapp number was been found on the recovered mobile instrument. Besides this, various incriminating details were found in the mobile instrument.

It was found that the accused and the complainants were having a business connection. One of the complainants is the owner of a firm that is manufacturing snacks items and the remaining two complainants along with the accused person are distributors, said Alok Kumar, joint commissioner of police (Crime).

Till a few years ago, Kishore was a super stockist and had a handsome sale but after he was made a simple distributor, his turnover was grossly reduced. In order to take revenge and also earn some quick money, the accused hatched this conspiracy, Kumar said. Kishore had created an international WhatsApp' number by using an online application and made attempts to extort money.

Kishore has done MBA in marketing and had good cyber knowledge. He was also well-versed with the latest gadgets and technology, the officer said.

He is addicted to gambling and had suffered huge losses in business in the last two years and was in dire need of money, Kumar said.