“The first faults are theirs that commit them; The second faults are theirs that permit them.” - Thomas Fuller

Background
The accused posed to be a young girl living in Kolkata and lured a non-resident Indian (NRI) working in Dubai (the complainant) to enter into an e-mail correspondence. Subsequently, the accused began corresponding with the complainant using different e-mail IDs, under the guise of different female names which made the complainant believe that he was corresponding with different girls.

Having won the confidence of the complainant, the accused asked him for money and gifts. The complainant complied with the requests in the hope of receiving sexual favours from the 'girls' he was corresponding with. However after a period of time, when these favours were not forthcoming the complainant stopped this correspondence.

The accused then resorted to blackmailing the complainant by referring to the e-mail exchanges that had taken place earlier. In addition, the accused led the complainant to believe that one of the girls had committed suicide and that the complainant was responsible for it. The accused also sent fake copies of the letters from CBI, High Court of Calcutta, New York Police and Punjab University etc.

The complainant lived in constant fear of being arrested in connection with the suicide over a year and a half. He paid the accused a sum of INR 12.5 million ostensibly to bribe the officials that were supposedly investigating the suicide and to compensate the victim's family for the loss of her income. The complainant was continuously under the threat of being arrested by the police. Given the huge strain upon his financial resources as well as the mental agony faced by him, the complainant himself contemplated suicide.

Investigation
The complainant handed over all the e-mail correspondence to the police. Many of them had masked headers and therefore the police could not investigate them any further. Moreover there was no e-mail that could be traced to Kolkata where the accused was staying as per the complainant's version. However the investigating team was able to trace some of these e-mails to the corporate office of a large cement company and a residence in Mumbai. A raid was conducted at these premises.

In the raid one computer, two laptops, seven mobile phones and a scanner were seized. The computer equipment that was recovered was sent to the office of the forensic examiner, who found all the evidences of e-mails, chatting details etc in the laptops and the computer.

During the investigation, property worth INR 0.9 million was seized, along with cash worth INR 0.3 million. The total flow of the extorted money was traced from the bank in Dubai to the account of the accused person.

Current status
Charge sheet is submitted in the court and the matter is subjudice.

This case won the first runner up position for the India Cyber Cop Award, for its investigating officer Mr Deepak Dhole, Inspector, Mumbai Police. This case was a classic example of social engineering when Internet was just beginning to take off in India. The police response was swift and the case investigation thorough and professional.