New Delhi:
During the day, he works as a recruiter at a private company in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida. At night he turns into a US-based model on a soul-searching trip to India. His day job offered him security, and his nocturnal activities brought in the money through manipulation and blackmail. Tushar Singh Bisht, 23, was arrested from the Shakarpur area of East Delhi on Friday for defrauding over 700 women by posing as a model on dating platforms.
A resident of Delhi, Tushar has a bachelor’s degree in business administration (BBA). For the past three years, he had been employed as a technical recruiter at a private company in Noida.
His father works as a driver, his mother is a homemaker, and his sister is employed in Gurugram. Tushar, despite holding on to a stable job, descended into the world of cybercrime, largely motivated by greed and lust for women.
Modus Operandi
Using a virtual international mobile number procured through an app, Tushar created fake profiles on popular dating and social media platforms such as Bumble and Snapchat. He posed as a US-based freelance model visiting India, using a fabricated persona with photos and stories stolen from an actual Brazilian model. His targets were primarily women aged 18-30, whom he befriended through these platforms.
Once he gained their trust, Tushar would request their phone numbers and intimate photos or videos under the guise of friendship. Unbeknownst to his victims, he saved the visuals on his phone. Initially, these activities were conducted for personal amusement, but over time, they evolved into a systematic scheme of extortion, police said.
According to the police, Tushar used these visuals to blackmail women into giving him money. If a victim refused his demands for money, he would threaten to upload their explicit content online or sell it on the dark web.
The Victims
According to police findings, Tushar engaged with more than 500 women on Bumble and over 200 on Snapchat and WhatsApp. He accumulated a trove of intimate content, which he used to blackmail his victims. One such case came to light when a second-year Delhi University student filed a complaint with the Cyber Police Station on December 13, 2024. Her ordeal began in January of the same year when she connected with Tushar on Bumble. He introduced himself as a US-based model and initiated a friendship that later transitioned to private chats on WhatsApp and Snapchat.
During their exchanges, the victim shared personal photos and videos with him. When she requested to meet in person, he consistently avoided her under various pretexts. Soon after, he sent her one of her private videos and demanded money, threatening to leak or sell the material if she did not comply. Initially, the student succumbed to the pressure, paying a small amount while explaining her financial constraints as a student. However, Tushar’s incessant demands pushed her to confide in her family and lodge a formal complaint.
The Investigation
The Cyber Police Station of West Delhi formed a team under the supervision of ACP Arvind Yadav. A combination of technical analysis and intelligence gathering helped the team trace Tushar’s activities and identify him as the accused. A swift raid in Shakarpur led to his arrest.
During the operation, the police recovered a mobile phone containing incriminating data, a virtual international mobile number linked to his criminal activities, and 13 credit cards from various banks. The police also retrieved over 60 WhatsApp chat records with women from Delhi and nearby regions. Preliminary findings revealed that apart from the complainant, at least four other women had been similarly extorted by Tushar.
The investigation uncovered two bank accounts linked to Tushar. One account contained entries of payments made by his victims, while details of the second account are still under probe.
