Sextortion racket tries to target senior Trinamool MLA

KOLKATA: An inter-state sextortion racket has now targeted a senior Trinamool Congress leader and three-time party MLA from the Chuchura Assembly constituency in West Bengal's Hooghly district, Asit Majumdar. However, Majumdar dodged the nefarious attempt and filed an FIR with the local police.

Explaining his experience, Majumdar said on September 12, he received a WhatsApp video call on his mobile from an unknown number. "I received the call and after that the video of a stripping female body flashed on the screen. Understanding that this might be a trap, I immediately disconnected the call. After that, similar video calls from the same number came to my mobile thrice again. However, I disconnected the call instead of receiving it," Majumdar said.

However, things took a different turn on September 13. "I received a WhatsApp voice call from another number on my mobile. When I received the call, one person identified himself as an officer of Delhi Police. He told me that he has detailed recording of my sex video call, which will be circulated soon through social media and made viral. Understanding that this particular call had some connection with the video call I received the previous day, I politely asked him to make me a normal call and not a WhatsApp call. Then the caller repeated the same threat. Thereafter I politely told him that I understood that the caller is not a police officer and also told him that it is a fruitless exercise in trying to blackmail me," Majumdar said.

Thereafter, he registered a complaint with the cyber-crime division of Chandernagor Police Commiserate and also submitted the two numbers from where the calls came.

He also explained why he decided to inform the media about this matter instead of keeping it a private affair. "Everyday these sextortion rackets target several people. Some of them succumb out of the fear of losing social prestige and end up paying money to the fraudsters. So, I narrated my story to send a word of caution to the people. My first appeal to people is to avoid accepting WhatsApp video calls from unknown numbers. Secondly, even if you accept such a call by mistake and get blackmailed, inform the police without any hesitation," Majumdar concluded.