Teen girl says was threatened over uploading her photos online, two held

Two persons were arrested Thursday for allegedly blackmailing a 19-year-old girl by threatening to upload her photographs online. An FIR was registered after the girl, along with her parents, approached the Agripada police on Wednesday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 3) Virendra Mishra said, “We have arrested two youngsters in connection with the case. One of them knew the 19-year-old girl and had procured some comprising photographs of her. He, along with his friend, started blackmailing her that if she did not pay them, he would put it up on social media.”

An officer from Agripada police station said the family gave a complaint against the two accused identified as Kishan Gupta (20) and Avinash Gupta (21). Police said that Kishan worked as a tourist guide, while the other accused was unemployed.

As per the girl’s statement, she met Kishan a few months back on a social networking site. Over a period of time, the two became good friends. The accused then managed to procure her intimate photographs. “As soon as he acquired these photographs over the past few weeks, the accused started to blackmail her. He told her that his friend Avinash also had her photographs. He threatened her that if she did not pay Rs 50,000, he would upload the photographs on social media platforms,” an officer said.

Kishan told the girl to make the payment to Avinash. The then informed her family about the incident. The family approached the police and a case under sections 384 (extortion), 385 (putting person in fear of injury to commit extortion), 354 (d) (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code, along with sections of the Information Technology Act was registered. The accused were arrested by a team of officers led by sub inspector Siddhesh Joste and Sachin Khanvilkar Mishra. “We suspect the accused befriended the girl with the intention of blackmailing her. We will, however, be interrogating them to get more details,” police said.