Jharkhand man arrested for school boy’s suicide

Surat: The crime branch of city police nabbed a man from Jharkhand on Sunday for allegedly trapping a class XII student of Katargam in sextortion. The boy had ended his life earlier this month.
He posed as a girl and had started chatting with the deceased. He had recorded his objectionable video by showing a girl’s obscene video on the mobile phone screen.

Police arrested Badal Kumar Mandal, a resident of Nagar Keshvari village in Giridih district of Jharkhand. Police traced him through detailed examination of the chat messages, mobile wallet and bank account.
“Till now, it has been found that Mandal was involved in the fraud with the deceased boy. He recorded the boy’s video and using it, he was blackmailing the boy,” said police.
Police registered an FIR of abetment to suicide against an unidentified person on March 23 at Chowk Bazaar police station. The boy had jumped from his residential apartment terrace on March 1 and died on March 3 during treatment.
Initially, the exact reason behind the suicide was not clear. Examination of chat messages in the mobile phone of the boy revealed that he had received threat messages. He was threatened by some unidentified person to pay money otherwise his obscene video would be shared to his known people.
Transaction details in the mobile phone wallet revealed that the boy had paid Rs 9,600 to the accused. “The boy blocked the accused’s phone number on WhatsApp after he got repeated threat messages, but the accused kept sending him messages from different numbers,” said police.
The boy’s father is a diamond artisan. The boy was unable to pay more money and so chose to end life, police investigation revealed.