India is a hub of internet users. More than 900 million people in India have
access to internet. Most of them also have their social media accounts, but are
totally unaware of the increasing menace to their privacy in this online world.
As per the 'Crime in India 2022' annual report released by the National Crime
Records Bureau(NCRB), India has recorded a total of 65,893 cyber-crime cases in
the year 2022 which marks a 24.38 percent spike from the 52,974 cases registered
in the year 2021. Among them, online frauds, extortions and sexual exploitations
formed a bulk of these cases.1
Introduction
Unfortunately, our country, India is regarded as the sextortion capital of the
world as it witnesses more than 500 cases of sextortion daily.2
However, the term sextortion is nowhere explicitly mentioned or defined in any
criminal law, but has grabbed the eyeballs of the law-enforcing agencies in
recent times.
But the primary question still remains the same, i.e., What exactly is
sextortion? In cyber space, sextortion is an online malicious practice, wherein
a cyber-crook attempts to extract money or obtain other sexual favours from an
innocent by threatening him/her to upload his/her sexually compromising
information like naked photographs or nude videos on various social networking
sites to disseminate them to the public at large or to share them with his/her
known ones. Sextortion can be committed both against males as well as females,
even though a majority of the victims, who fall prey to these online predators,
are mostly males.
Modus Operandi
Sextortion, in the cyber world, is spreading like an Amoeba, constantly
stretching its tentacles to grasp as many number of naive people as possible. It
is continuously mutating and evolving its modus operandi to deceive credulous
people.
After weeks or sometimes even months of digital inspection, the sextortionists
finally identify their potential targets and garner relevant information about
them. Thereafter friend requests are sent from some fake but fascinating
profiles to their gullible targets on different dating apps and matrimonial
websites. The cyber culprits then employ psychological tricks to manipulate the
minds of victims and persuade them to indulge in sexually oriented
conversations.
Subsequently, these fraudsters lure and induce their innocent
targets to share their intimate images with them or to engage in nude video
calls with them so that they could record them, using inbuilt screen recording
applications.
These recorded obscene clips are then used as tools of traumatization to blackmail the victims by intimidating them to post their
private pictures or indecent videos in the public domain or to share those with
their family and friends. Consequently, the entrapped victims, out of the fear
of sheer embarrassment and humiliation in the society, either decide to commit
suicide or succumb to the monetary demands of the sextortionists.
However, it is not necessary that sextortion is always committed by an anonymous
perpetrator, i.e., a new variant of this cyber offence has emerged which can be
committed even by a person known to the victim and with whom the victim has
already had a consensual physical relationship at one point of time in his/her
life. Such a person covertly obtains the personal, nude or semi-nude
pictures/videos of the victim, store and save them for future, and later, when
their relationship ends on a bad note, use them as an instrument to stigmatize
and extort money or other favours from the victim.
Leading Cases
The online scam of sextortion is expeditiously hunting and feeding on a large
number of people, especially the youngsters and those who are in their mid 40s
and 50s, struggling against sexual monotony in their lives.
In a tragic case of Bengaluru, in 2021, a 26 year old MBA graduate, namely
B.S.Avinash, was enticed to pose nude in a video call with a phoney profile,
created in the name of Rekha Sharma, which was recorded and later used to
mortify him to obtain financial favours from him. Initially, Avinash even paid
an amount of ₹36,000, but subsequently when he failed to fulfil the further
ransom demands, he, in the fear of shame, committed suicide by hanging himself
in order to escape from that sextortion syndicate forever.
In the most recent case of
Soukin v. The NCT State New Delhi 3 which was decided
on 24 April,2024, the Delhi High Court denied the grant of anticipatory bail to
the applicant and observed that sextortion is a significant social hazard which
amounts to the profound violation of a person's privacy. Besides, Justice Amit
Mahajan even went up to the extent of saying that this scandal not only
undermines an individual's dignity but also offers some serious challenges to
the law-enforcing authorities owing to its 'clandestine and cross-jurisdictional
nature.'4
Legal Remedies
If you are someone who has been entangled in this web of sextortion, then the
first thing which you need to do is not to panic and be pragmatic in your
approach to handle such troublesome situation.
Do not forget to take a screenshot of the alleged profile.
Along with all the documentary evidence collected like the screenshots, bank
transaction statements(if any), etc., reach out to your nearest police station
to lodge an FIR under relevant sections, and the concerned station shall then
forward the case to its cyber crime cell for further investigation.
We should be grateful to our visionary legislators who, in the advent of the
21st century, perceived the perils posed by the technological advancements and
accordingly enacted the Information Technology (IT) Act in 2000 to deal with a
wide variety of cyber crime cases.
Section 66E of the Information Technology Act(2000) makes it punishable for a
person, who intentionally or knowingly captures and publishes or transmits
electronically the image of the private area of an individual (which may be
his/her genitals, buttocks or breast), without his/her consent, thereby
infringing his/her privacy, with imprisonment for a term which may extend up to
3 years or with fine of not more than two lakh rupees or with both.
Section 67A of the Information Technology Act(2000) makes it punishable for a
person, who publishes or transmits any sexually explicit material pertinent to
an individual in any electronic form, with imprisonment for a term extending up
to 5 years and with fine not exceeding ten lakh rupees, and on a second or
subsequent conviction, with imprisonment for a term extending up to 7 years
along with fine of not more than ten lakh rupees.
Sextortion, in the garb of Voyeurism, attracts Section 77 of the Bharatiya Nyaya
Sanhita, 2023, which corresponds to Section 354C of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
However, it is not a gender neutral provision as it recognises only female
victims, who could be targeted by some online perverts.
Section 77 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita(2023) makes it punishable for a
person, who views or records the pictures of a woman, while she is indulged in a
private act (which includes the woman using a washroom or the exposure of
victim's genitals, buttocks or breasts either fully or covered in undergarments)
in such circumstances under which she would reasonably expect privacy or shares
such intimate images with a third party without her consent, with imprisonment
for a term of not less than 1 year but not more than 3 years along with fine,
and on a second or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment for a term of not
less than 3 years but not more than 7 years along with fine.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, it can be concluded that the best way to defeat this evil is to
create an atmosphere of cyber-awareness and to sensitize the people, especially
the young generations, to the mental agony and emotional trauma of the victims
of sextortion.
One should not blindly keep on accepting all the friend requests sent by random
and recently made profiles. One should be indoctrinated not to engage in lewd
video calls ever. If the person on the other side of an electronic communication
seems to be in a hurry to develop intimacy with you, then it shall act as a red
flag for you. You should not permit anyone to get access to your personal
pictures, even if you are well-acquainted with that person as such salacious
data can be misused later, thereby endangering your social reputation. If you
are invited to join a nude video call or asked to expose your private parts,
then it is a cause of alarm and you should act prudently with utmost care and
caution.
Therefore, always think twice before you bare it all.
References:
- https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/ncrbs-crime-in-india-2022-report
- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/india-becoming-sextortion-capital-of-the-world/
- 2024 SCC Online Del 2986
- https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2024/05/02/sextortion-represents-profound-violation-of-privacy-is-social-menace-dhc-legal-news/
Written By: Shubham Singh, student of LL.B.(Hons.) at Banaras Hindu
University
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