Cheat Poses as Naxal Commander for Extortion Using Google, WhatsApp; Arrested in Malkangiri

Malkangiri: A youth using the information of traders from Google to extort money posing as a naxal commander through WhatsApp calls was arrested in Malkangiri district. The fake Maoist was identified as Santosh Kumar Mohanty alias Pintu of Khordha district.

Santosh was arrested by Malkangiri police on the charges of extorting over Rs 1 lakh from several traders in the Malkangiri district by posing as a naxal commander.

Following a complaint lodged by a medicine shop owner on August 9, police initiated a probe to nab the accused. The medicine shop owner had received a WhatsApp call from a man who identified himself as a naxal commander and demanded ransom.

Similar complaints were also lodged in other police stations in Malkangiri district. In one case, a victim had paid over Rs 1 lakh in instalments while another person had paid around Rs 3000. Investigation revealed that the accused was acquiring phone numbers of shops from the information uploaded to the web by using Google Maps street view and other tools. Then he was making WhatsApp calls for extortion to dodge immediate tracking of his phone number.