Kin blackmails woman with obscene content, arrested

The police have arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly blackmailing a woman by sharing her private images and videos on social media, an official said on Sunday.

The accused has been identified as Prabhat Chaudhary, alias Piyush, a resident of Bulandshahr district in Uttar Pradesh, and a distant relative of the complainant.

The incident came to light after a man, Priyanshu Mawana, filed a complaint alleging that a person known to him had sent him sexually explicit images and videos of his sister on social media and threatened to make them public, if his monetary demand was not met.

Following the complaint, an investigation was launched and the team raided the accused’s address. However, it was found that he no longer lives there, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North West) Bhisham Singh.

Based on digital footprints, he was traced down and was arrested, the cop added.

He said the accused was a distant relative of the complainant and had used multiple social media accounts and deliberately kept his mobile phone switched off to evade detection.

To further cover his tracks, he sent the explicit content using the “view once” feature, making it difficult for the recipient to save or forward the material.

During interrogation, Chaudhary admitted to his involvement in the offence. He told investigators that he had sent the obscene material to the complainant to blackmail his sister and pressure her into fulfilling his monetary demands, Singh added.