Minister vows to end those using technology for extortion

• Victims reluctant to lodge complaints due to stigma involved
• Hotline 118 installed at Police Headquarters to lodge complaints

By Sandun A. Jayasekera 

Public Security Minister Rear Admiral, Dr. Sarath Weerasekara vowed that the Police would put an end to the using of technology to victimise young women to pillage ransom from them before the crime goes out of hand. 

Minister Weerasekera told Daily Mirror that the newest crime that has emerged from the underworld was the targeting of unsuspecting girls and young women with the promise of marrying them. 

What these criminals normally do is, after establishing a friendship, the criminal takes his victim out of the safety of parents masquerading as the boyfriend or the prospective husband and takes pictures of her in compromising positions or in the nude. The villain later terrorizes her with the threat of ‘blackmail’ off guard and demands a hefty ransom, gold jewellery or other valuables and if not to post the pictures on the internet or Facebook. 

• There are instances where the victims have committed suicide