Upset 12-year-old Mumbai girl sends threat emails to parents

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The 12-year-old daughter of a well-placed banker, believing parents were not giving her enough attention, shot off emails to them demanding extortion money running into several lakhs along with threats to kill family members if the amount was not paid, police said on Tuesday. The matter came to light during a probe by the Mumbai Crime Branch, which had initially registered a case under IPC section 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion), officials said.

After the banker approached the Borivali police on July 21 to complain about the extortion-threat emails his wife was receiving, Crime Branch's Unit XI began the probe, an official said.

"The sender claimed he was a Chinese national who knew all the family members of the complainant and demanded payment of Rs 1 lakh. The mails were sent from different IDs.

"In a subsequent communication, the sender upped the extortion amount to Rs 12 million (Rs 1.2 crore) and threatened to kill the complainant and his wife and their two daughters," he informed.

Technical analysis of the email trail showed it had been sent from the banker's mobile phone, and, moreover, the IP address of all three extortion-threat emails were also the same, the official said.

"Our probe found that the mobile phone in question was being used by the banker's 12-year-old daughter. We spoke to her in the presence of her parents on the issue and she admitted she sent the emails.

"She told us she was under the impression that her parents were not giving her attention and that they loved her four-year-old sister more," the official said.

The minor girl also said her parents often scolded her, and she believed sending such threat emails would get her father and mother arrested, he added.

The parents refused to further pursue the matter and their decision was conveyed by the Crime Branch to the Borivali police, the official added.