The Cyber Police in Mumbai arrested a Delhi-based YouTuber on Saturday for allegedly duping a 45-year-old woman from Mumbai of more than Rs 19 lakh.
Piyush Katyaal, who makes prank videos and has more than five lakh subscribers on YouTube, is accused of duping the woman under the pretext of accepting financial help for a medical reason. He also allegedly threatened the woman when she asked him to return the money.
DCP (Cyber) Purushottam Karhad has confirmed that Katyaal was arrested for defrauding the woman.
As per the police complaint, nearly 4 to 5 months ago, the complainant woman came across Katyaal’s YouTube page after watching his videos. She followed him, and after seeing her comments on the video, Katyaal contacted her.
The two soon exchanged their mobile numbers and chatted over messenger apps. They became good friends.
According to the police, after gaining her trust recently, Katyaal sought financial help from her urgently for medical reasons.
Considering the seriousness of the situation and trusting Katyaal, the woman helped him.
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But this continued further, and Katyaal started regularly asking the woman for financial help for one reason or another.
Initially, the woman gave the money, but later when she refused, the accused started threatening to make the screenshot of their chatting viral on social media if she did not pay, states the police complaint.
He also threatened to defame the woman by saying that he has got connections in the police department.
The victim got scared, and taking advantage of this, Katyaal allegedly extorted a total of Rs 19 lakh from her for various reasons.
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But he continued demanding more money, and the woman was left with no option other than approaching the police.
She contacted North Region cyber police and filed a complaint.
Accordingly, on the woman’s complaint, the North Cyber Police registered a case under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and arrested Katyaal from Delhi.
Katyaal was remanded to five days of police custody by a court. “The cyber police is investigating the case and we will check if there are other victims as well,” DCP Karhad said.
