Tushar Bisht, 23, a graduate with a weakness for swank cars and a good life, was a regular at parties and discotheques. But he did not earn enough to sustain his lavish lifestyle.

To earn a fast buck, he opened accounts on several dating platforms while posing as a US-based model and allegedly befriended over 700 women, aged 18 to 30. He then blackmailed scores of them by threatening to expose their private photos and videos and extorted money from them, officers said.

His luck ran out last week when he landed in the Delhi police’s dragnet.

“He got involved in these illegal activities out of greed and a desire to interact romantically with young women,” an officer said.

Bisht had created fake profiles on several dating and social media apps such as Bumble, Snapchat and WhatsApp, officers said. He used a “chiselled Brazilian model’s photos and videos” to pose as an American freelance model who often visited Delhi on business.

In reality, police sources said, the BBA graduate had worked as a technical recruiter with a Noida-based private firm for the past three years.

A probe has revealed that Bisht’s father is a privately employed driver and his mother a homemaker. His sister has a job with a Gurgaon-based multinational company, police sources said.

“Bisht used his fake profiles to send friend requests to women aged between 18 and 30. If the girl accepted the request, he would start chatting,” deputy commissioner of police Vichitra Veer said.

Bisht then earned the women’s trust and convinced them to share private and intimate images and videos.

“Once he obtained this, he resorted to blackmail, threatening to leak the sensitive material online or sell them to the dark web unless the victims paid up. Most gave in,” DCP Veer said.

Preliminary investigation has revealed that Bisht had interacted with over 500 women on Bumble and 200 others on Snapchat and WhatsApp.

His mobile phone contains evidence against him, including victims’ private content and details of financial transactions involving them, officers said. They said that 13 credit cards, linked to various banks, had been seized from Bisht.

The matter came to light on December 13 when a second-year Delhi University student lodged a complaint with the cyber police station. She said she had connected with the accused on Bumble earlier in the year. Posing as a US-based model visiting India on business, he had conversed with her regularly and gained her trust, she said.

He then persuaded her to share private photos and videos on Snapchat and WhatsApp, but invented excuses to dodge every request to meet in person, the DCP said.

“The situation escalated when the accused sent her a private video she had shared and demanded money. Pressured, the victim made small payments, citing her financial constraints. However, the relentless demands drove her to inform her family and lodge a complaint,” Veer said.

An FIR was registered and a special team formed. It identified Bisht as the accused and tracked him to Shakarpur in east Delhi. A raid led to his arrest.

Veer said that Bisht had admitted during interrogation that he had for two years used a virtual international mobile number, having obtained it through an app. From this number he registered himself on dating and chatting platforms, posing as a glamorous model.

“Initially, he did this for amusement but it later turned into an extortion scheme. He has confessed to possessing private content of numerous women and having blackmailed many of them for financial gain,” an officer said.

Police sources said the investigation had uncovered Bisht’s chats with more than 60 women from in and around Delhi. Two bank accounts linked to the accused have been identified, one of them showing multiple transactions involving the alleged victims. Details of the second account are awaited.