Two jewellers blackmail friend from Assam, held

KOLKATA: Two jewellers, both in their 30s, were arrested on Saturday night for blackmailing their friend, a Guwahati-based jeweller. The accused, Sharbant Soni and Narayan Verma, threatened to leak some intimate pictures of the victim with his ex-girlfriend unless he paid a hefty amount.
The Guwahati-based jeweller paid Rs 50,000 to the duo and lodged a complaint on Friday night after failing to meet their fresh demands. Based on the complaint, cops arrested the duo from their Lake Town and Dum Dum Park homes.

According to the complaint, the three knew each other for long and did business together. On December 18, when the Guwahati jeweller flew down to Kolkata, the three met at a Posta house. Later, the duo got the Guwahati jeweller inebriated and asked for his phone.

The complainant told police he had spoken to his friends about his former affair and the fact that he will be getting married soon. The friends then insisted on seeing images and videos of his ex-girlfriend on his phone. Finding him drunk, the friends transferred the images and videos to their phones.

Fearing for his reputation and the fact that it could derail his wedding plans, on December 23, the Guwahati jeweller paid Rs 50,000 to the duo at Tollygunge Metro station. But that didn’t stop the threats. The duo then demanded several lakhs and threatened to upload the images and videos on social media sites.

Harassed and humiliated, the jeweller lodged an FIR with the Posta police on Friday. “Further investigations are on,” said an investigating officer.