Online sexual extortion seems to be the 'in' thing. Several teens have become victim to 'sextortion' prompting law enforcement officials to caution teens about their activities online. In another case, the family of Priyanka Gupta want the accused to be sent to the gallows. Read on
Indianpolis: The nightmare began with a party: three teenage girls with a webcam, visiting an internet chatroom and yielding to requests to flash their breasts.
A week later, one of the girls, a 17-year-old from Indiana, started getting threatening e-mails. A stranger said he had captured her image on the webcam and would post the pictures to her MySpace friends unless she posed for more explicit pictures and videos for him. On at least two occasions, the teen did what her blackmailer demanded. Finally, police and federal authorities became involved and indicted a 19-year-old Maryland man in June on charges of sexual exploitation.
Federal prosecutors and child safety advocates say they're seeing an upswing in such cases of online sexual extortion. They say teens who text nude cellphone photos of themselves or show off their bodies on the internet are being contacted by pornographers who threaten to expose their behaviour to friends and family unless they pose for more explicit porn, creating a vicious cycle of exploitation. One federal affidavit includes a special term for the crime: "sextortion."
In Wisconsin, Anthony Stancl, 18, received 15 years in prison in February after prosecutors said he posed as a girl on Facebook to trick male high school classmates into sending him nude cell hone photos, which he then used to extort them for sex.
The cases have prompted law enforcement officials and advocates to caution teens about their activities. Once indiscretions appear online, they are virtually impossible to take back. Teens can be more vulnerable to blackmail because they're easy to intimidate and embarrassed to seek help.
Next page: Satish Gupta should be hanged, say family
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Bangalore: Satish Gupta should be sent to the gallows, say Priyanka Gupta's family. The 30-year-old Delhi Public School teacher was brutally killed last Tuesday, by her husband.
According to local media reports, Priyanka's family, who live in Lucknow want Satish to be hanged. Her brother Praful has said that they had actually believed that Satish was an innocent when they saw him weep like a child during lighting her pyre. He has also said that Satish's father had tried to forcibly remove the jewellery from Priyanka's body before the cremation. He added that they had given dowry to Satish in the form of cash as well as jewellery during the marriage and spent around Rs 15 lakhs on the wedding itself. Praful said that though the marriage was a happy one initially, Priyanka's mother-in-law would find fault and criticise her for smallest of the things. Even after Priyanka managed to convince Satish to move out of her in-laws house, her happiness was short lived, the family has said.
Satish, who works in the HR department of Infosys Technologies, was all along a prime suspect. The breakthrough came when the police discovered that Satish had taken his wife's mobile when he went out for jogging on the fateful day. He had then called from Priyanka's mobile to his own mobile to create an alibi.
According to the police, Satish was fed up with his wife's taunts. On Tuesday morning, he tied her up on a chair and strangled her to death using a nylon rope. He then discovered that Priyanka's body was still warm. He then took a kitchen knife and slit her throat. Not satisfied, he dug up parts of the throat, giving the police a clue that the act was not that of a professional killer.
Initially, Satish had told the police that his wife had called up to say that two newspaper agents had come in. But on Thursday, the police got proof that Priyanka had not made any call to his wife. When the police verified the phone records, it became clear that Satish had taken Priyanka's phone along on his walk and called himself up using his wife's handset.
Satish reportedly told the police he killed his wife as he was angry with her attitude. She had the habit of taunting him on his sexual vitality.
The police are also likely to take Satish's parents into custody for questioning. This is because Priyanka has some differences with her in-laws and had moved out recently to live separately.
In an intersting development, Satish has implicated his close friend Kishan too in the murder. The police would look at this angle even as they are trying to question Mamatha, a family friend from Lucknow who had arranged the wedding of Priyanka.
Next page: Gangster gunned down in Uttar Pradesh
Police had announced a reward for his capture
Lucknow: A gangster wanted in over 25 criminal cases, including murder and abduction, was gunned down by police in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar district early Monday, an official said.
Rudal Yadav, for whose capture police had announced a Rs.75,000 reward, was shot dead during a shootout with police in Jatha area, some 300 km from Lucknow, while four of his aides managed to escape.
The operation was carried out jointly by the police and the Special Task Force (STF).
"Rudal was wanted by Uttar Pradesh as well as Bihar police. He was gunned down after a fight that lasted for nearly an hour," Superintendent of Police Luv Kumar told reporters in Kushinagar.
"Four rifles and several live cartridges were recovered from Rudal's possession," he added.
Rudal, 40, was a native of Bihar and primarily operated in the eastern regions of Uttar Pradesh, police said.
Teams have been constituted to nab the gangster's four aides, who escaped during the gunfight.
Next page: Five electrocuted in 24 hours
Victims include two minors
New Delhi: In five separate incidents, five persons, including two minors, were electrocuted in New Delhi in the last 24 hours.
In the first incident, a 17-year-old boy died due to negligence of BSES as the Discom had left wires of a 11000-volt transformer uncovered in Uttam Nagar. Rahul Kumar was going to market around 8 am from his Mohan Garden residence and was crossing the waterlogged Rama Park Road. "As he entered the water, he was electrocuted. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival," said a police officer.
A case of causing death due to negligence has been registered against BSES and the case is under investigation.
Rahul was a student of the Industrial Training Institute, Pusa Road.
His father, Kamal Bahadur, has a automobile parts shop in the area.
In the second incident, Rajkumar (13) died when he touched a high tension wire in Kondli area in East Delhi Sunday morning. Rajkumar was flying a kite when it entangled in an electric wire, said an officer. Several high tension wires are hanging close to the roofs of houses in the area.
In another incident, a manager in an exports company died when he came in contact with an uncovered electric wire in Neb Sarai, South Delhi. "Anand Vijay (40) was carrying water in buckets from a DJB tanker to his third-floor house. He did not notice that a live wire was hanging on the stairs and touched it accidentally," said an officer.
In the fourth incident, Sajid Alam (32), who worked with a small eating stall, died as he got electrocuted with a mixer grinder in RK Puram Sector 6 on Saturday evening.
In the last incident, Suman (30) died when she came in contact with an uncovered wire in her house. She lived in D block in Jahangirpuri with her husband.
