Man Arrested for Blackmailing Saudi Based Indian Doctor with Morphed Photos

The Mumbai Police has arrested a man from Uttar Pradesh for blackmailing a Saudi Arabia based Indian doctor with her morphed photographs. In order to get money, he started to threaten the doctor, who had actually helped him in the country during his tough financial circumstances.

The arrested has been identified as Mohammed Irshad Malik, Times of India reported.

According to the Indian Express, Malik, a resident of Jogeshwari in Mumbai, used to work at a mall in Taif city in Saudi Arabia, where he befriended the doctor, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, last October. He gained her sympathy by telling her that his employers were not paying him regularly and he was in dire situation.

“The doctor felt sorry for him and helped him out. But as they kept in touch over the next year, Malik stole all the data from the doctor’s phone and left Saudi Arabia on Sept. 26 this year,” the newspaper quoted a Mumbai Police Crime Branch officer as saying.

He edited some of the stolen pictures and morphed them into obscene photographs. He sent these edited pictures back to the doctor and demanded Rs. 2 Lakh from her telling her he would share those pictures with her contacts if she did not pay him. According to the police, he actually sent pictures to some of her contacts, after which the worried doctor wired him Rs. 20,000, the report added.

Shortly after, the doctor came to India and filed a complaint against Malik in Mumbai. The police found it difficult to trace him in the beginning as he was using Saudi Arabian phone numbers. Also, he was using encrypted video calling and text applications, which made the job to track him even more difficult. After consistent search attempts, he was finally traced to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, from where the police arrested him earlier this week.

The publication cited a police officer as saying that Malik wanted to set up a saloon for which he needed money and he found the doctor his perfect victim.