An alleged "sextortion'' gang has been busted with the arrest of its kingpin accused of extorting about Rs 1.2 crore from over a dozen people in the last one year, police here said on Sunday. The accused and his associates approached "rich-looking" men on Facebook with fake profiles of women and would honey trap them, they said.

The gang sent 'friend requests'' to their targets using fake profiles and talked to them posing as women on Facebook Messenger app and WhatsApp, police said. According to police, the matter came to light when of the victim's approached police in November alleging that he was set up by the gang which extorted Rs 300,000 from him. He said he had paid Rs 1.5 lakh in cash and another Rs 1.5 lakh via a bank account transfer to the accused.