Delhi: Police arrest man who morphed photos of minors from Facebook, blackmailed them

The team from Ashok Vihar police station that arrested Gambhir found “morphed” photographs of over 50 girls in multiple phones owned by him, said sources. Gambhir, a resident of Kishan Ganj, ran a mobile shop located at the basement of his house, said police.

“Almost 50 girls, aged between 9 and 16 years… were being targeted by him… he used to blackmail them with morphed photos and often sent them vulgar messages through Facebook and WhatsApp,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Vijay Singh.

Police came to know about Gambhir’s alleged actions Thursday, when parents of a Class IX student told them that someone had send morphed photos to her through Whatsapp. A team lead by Inspector Virender Kadyan tracked down Gambhir and conducted raids on his shop and residence.

During initial investigation, it was revealed that Gambhir had procured multiple SIMs by using the identity documents furnished by his customers, said sources. “While going through the data on his mobile phones, morphed pictures of the complainant’s daughter as well as those of other victims were found,” said Singh.

On how Gambhir chose his targets, the officer said he used to “look for” girls on social media websites. The accused told police that he would type any random name in Facebook search and once the results came up, he would save their profile pictures.

Gambhir allegedly used a ‘cut and paste’ phone App to create “morphed” images of these girls. He would then get in touch with these girls via Facebook and blackmail them by using the photos, said police.

The accused told police that he decided to blackmail the girls because he was upset about being single, as all his friends were married, said police.

Police found “morphed and objectionable” photos as well as details of several girls in his mobile phones, said police. Gambhir had blocked over 40 phone numbers on his mobile, said police, adding that it was possible that the numbers belonged to the parents of the girls, who had tried to contact him as he was harassing their daughters.

The accused had been collecting photos and information on girls from Facebook, and blackmailing them, for over a year, said police.