Pune: Elder brother alleges sextortion behind death of ITI tradesman

PUNE: The Sahakarnagar police are investigating a sextortion case after finding a morphed video clip in the smartphone of a 22-year-old ITI tradesman, found hanging in his house at Dhankawdi on September 30.
A case of extortion and offences under the Information Technology Act was registered on Sunday after his elder brother lodged a complaint alleging that unknown callers were blackmailing the victim stating that they would post the morphed video clip on social media if they were not given money.
The victim's elder brother told TOI, "My brother had recently completed an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) course and looking for an apprenticeship. On the evening of September 30, I found him hanging from a ceiling hook. It was shocking as he was fine till the afternoon. The police searched the room where he was found but did not find any suicide notes. When they checked his phone, they found his chats with some unknown number and a morphed video clip."
He said, "The messages showed that someone was blackmailing my brother. Last month, he had received a message from an unknown number. There was a woman's photograph in the display picture. We also found a morphed video clip of my brother, sent by that 'woman'. There were threat messages on the phone. The 'woman' was demanding money from him by threatening him to upload his video on social media websites. 'She' also threatened him that 'she' had all his contacts and 'she' would forward the video to them."
He said, "When the police checked the bank records, they found that my brother had transferred Rs4,500 to a UPI number. But the 'woman' was blackmailing him and demanding more money. Frustrated by the harassment, he had even sent a message to the 'woman' that he would end his life. The 'woman' replied to him that 'Go on, video will still be uploaded'. My brother could not sustain this and ended his life."
Inspector Prakash Pasalkar of the Sahakarnagar police said it was a case of extortion. "We have sought details from the victim's bank to trace where the money was transferred," Pasalkar said.