Uttar Pradesh: Brothers Mehtab and Shadab operated gang to target, shut down pro-Hindutva handles online and extort money, arrested

The gang filed copyright case against Instagram accounts claiming their fake accounts to be genuine accounts, and got genuine accounts deleted

On 29th September the authorities in the Sitapur area of Uttar Pradesh apprehended Mehtab Ansari and Shadab Ansari, who were in charge of a large cybercrime ring. Both used to send strikes to shut down pro-Hindutva handles on social media with the assistance of their network. Afterwards, huge amounts were extorted in the name of restoring the accounts. Hundreds of individuals related to this gang have been discovered to be connected through the accused’s Telegram account.

The case pertained to Kotwali (police station) Dehat (rural area) of the Sitapur district. On 27th September the administrator of Instagram’s @randombrigade profile lodged a complaint with the police and stated that a few days ago he received an audio phone and message from the ID of Instagram username @soloxkakashi. There was a threat to file a copyright strike and have his Instagram handle suspended, in the message. Money was demanded from him when he requested not to do so and a QR (quick-response) code was sent to him.

The bank account linked to it was registered in the name of Mehtab son of Nizamuddin. He sent Rs 500 to the account on 3rd August, however, he was asked to pay more. The accused also threatened to murder him and his family members. On the same day, the victim gave them another Rs 1500 in two instalments, out of fear. He again sent Rs 1000 on 5th August and Rs 750 on 1st September. Mehtab started asking for a present through Amazon or Flipkart worth Rs 70,000, even though he had already collected Rs 3,750 from him.

When he expressed his inability to afford such a large sum, the perpetrator threatened, “I will defame you and ruin your life by declaring your Instagram account as fake copyright.” The death threats and regular extortion troubled the young man who began to worry for his and his family’s safety. He also suspected that Mehtab must have harassed many innocent people like him by creating bogus IDs. He eventually went to the police station and submitted a complaint. He referred to the offender’s actions as illegal extortion and sought strict punishment in the case.

The police registered a case under sections 318 (4), 352, 351 (2), 308 (5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and 66-D of the Information Technology (IT) Act and started an investigation. OpIndia has a copy of the complaint.

The profound conspiracy

When Sitapur police started the probe, Shadab’s name also surfaced along with Mehtab. The two are real brothers and are natives of Sitapur. The duo were staying in Agra at present. 3 mobile phones have also been recovered from them. Police revealed that they used to download the APK file of Insta Pro 2 from Google and then lift photos and data from the real Instagram ID of their targets. Afterwards, they downloaded the copyright form of Instagram, filled it and sent it as a complaint to the META platform. They projected the ID created by them as authentic and the other one as fraudulent.

The gang then used to claim copyright on the profile of the person who had the real ID. Payment was also extorted from the victim in the name of deleting the ID. According to the police, Shadab and Mehtab have made similar copyright claims on about 600 IDs so far. Money has also been taken from many of them. @randombrigade was one of them who ended up launching a police complaint against the culprits. Mehtab and Shadab are in police custody and details concerning the total amount of money they received so far are being gathered. Cyber Cell has also been engaged to get to the root of their offences.

Pro Hindutva handles were the targets

Sitapur Superintendent of Police Chakresh Mishra went into great detail about the gang’s illegal tactics. He mentioned that they have Telegram and WhatsApp groups through which thousands of complaints were made to META and X (formerly Twitter) simultaneously against the real profiles. According to him, the tech giants also took action after taking cognizance of these reports. The authorities have considered it a new type of internet crime.

Mehtab and Shadab have been linked to about 20 fictitious handles. The pair utilised Telegram, WhatsApp and Twitter to contact their gang. Moreover, they communicated with one another in other ways as well. The police have also disclosed that mostly right-wing handles have been targeted by Shadab and Mehtab’s gang. The cops are accumulating information on their actions, which were also directed by someone higher up. Other necessary legal action is being taken in the case.