Probe launched as ‘cop’ tries to extract money from students of Jabalpur women’s college

Jabalpur: A man claiming to be a policeman has targeted dozens of students of a women’s college in Jabalpur, accusing them of uploading obscene photos and videos on social media, and extracting money from some of them, an official said on Friday.

Over the past four days, several students from Government Mankunwar Bai Women College in the Madhya Pradesh city have received calls and messages from the impostor threatening police action, Jabalpur Superintendent of Police Aditya Pratap Singh told reporters.

The caller, who identified himself as "police officer Vikram Goswami", told the women that they had uploaded obscene pictures and videos on social media for which they would be prosecuted if they did not cough up money, the SP said.

Police suspect the criminal is using artificial intelligence (AI) to create the photos and videos to target the students, two of whom have transferred Rs 2,000-3,000 to him. They are also trying to determine how he got the students' numbers.

The caller sent a link – to objectionable images and videos – to the students’ mobile phones and threatened them with police cases for "sharing such sleazy clips on social media". He also told them that a police team would visit their parents, the official said.

After being informed by the students about the threat calls and messages, the college management alerted the police, said Singh.

The SP said an FIR has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) section 318 (cheating) and Information Technology Act sections 66 (sending offensive messages through communication service, etc.) and 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form).

Preliminary investigation suggests that the videos had been generated using the AI technology, Additional Superintendent of Police Sonakshi Saxena said.

Police are also trying to find out how the mobile numbers of so many women students reached the caller, she said, adding that efforts are on to identify the fraudster.