Rajasthan
From con to porn: Gangs of Mewat reinvent selves for online ‘sextortion’ | Jaipur News
ALWAR/JAIPUR: Rajasthan’s notorious gangs of Mewat have gone from con to porn, giving the infamous art of “tatlu baazi” that preyed on human naiveté a new, more nefarious spin. In the late 90s, these gangs would routinely con their victims with fake antique gold bricks or other worthless bric-a-brac presented as treasures pilfered from excavation sites. Two decades later, the old tricks no longer work, but the gangs of Mewat are back in business with subterfuge and “sextortion”, using porn as a weapon against the victims.
An approximately 150km area straddling Alwar and Bharatpur districts has emerged as the new Jamtara of Mewat, with gangs allegedly extorting crores of rupees from wealthy men who fall for a fling and end up being honeytrapped.
According to Alwar and Bharatpur police, the modus operandi is the same every time. Gang members masquerade as beautiful women on social media sites to befriend potential targets. What starts as casual online flirting graduates into bolder chatting. Online Hindito-English translation tools keep the charade going till numbers are exchanged and the game moves to WhatsApp.
The next bait is porn. The victim thinks the person in the clip is the “woman” he is chatting with, and invariably gets cajoled into indulging in a sex act that is recorded. Blackmail follows. Most give in for fear of being outed on social media or some porn website. Alwar SP Tejaswini Gautam said victims being unwilling to file cases was the primary challenge in going after these gangs.
Alwar police recently constituted a special task force to hunt for these gangs. In the past three months alone, the they have busted over 36 of them and arrested over 600 people.
Instances of extortion by these gangs have been reported in multiple states, including faraway Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Bengal and Karnataka. The gangs mostly operate from bases located deep in the Mewat region, which stretches into Haryana.
An approximately 150km area straddling Alwar and Bharatpur districts has emerged as the new Jamtara of Mewat, with gangs allegedly extorting crores of rupees from wealthy men who fall for a fling and end up being honeytrapped.
According to Alwar and Bharatpur police, the modus operandi is the same every time. Gang members masquerade as beautiful women on social media sites to befriend potential targets. What starts as casual online flirting graduates into bolder chatting. Online Hindito-English translation tools keep the charade going till numbers are exchanged and the game moves to WhatsApp.
The next bait is porn. The victim thinks the person in the clip is the “woman” he is chatting with, and invariably gets cajoled into indulging in a sex act that is recorded. Blackmail follows. Most give in for fear of being outed on social media or some porn website. Alwar SP Tejaswini Gautam said victims being unwilling to file cases was the primary challenge in going after these gangs.
Alwar police recently constituted a special task force to hunt for these gangs. In the past three months alone, the they have busted over 36 of them and arrested over 600 people.
Instances of extortion by these gangs have been reported in multiple states, including faraway Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Bengal and Karnataka. The gangs mostly operate from bases located deep in the Mewat region, which stretches into Haryana.
