Man held for harassing, blackmailing and extorting Rs 7 lakh from woman he loved

New Delhi: A man was arrested for allegedly blackmailing, harassing and extorting Rs seven lakh from a woman he loved in exchange for removing her pictures he had uploaded on various social media platforms without her consent, police said on Saturday.

The accused named Anshul Srivastava (40), a resident of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh is a BSC Computer Science Graduate. He was in one-sided love with the woman whom he started harassing and threatening when she did not give him attention, they said.

The matter came to light on September 12, when a resident of RK Puram lodged a complaint alleging that a person was continuously harassing, threatening and bullying her through emails and messages, they said.

The accused was also uploading her pictures without her consent on social media platforms like Instagram, Whatsapp and Facebook in order to defame her, they said.

Srivastava also demanded Rs seven lakh from the woman to delete her pictures. The money was transferred to him via Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) process, police said.

DCP (Southwest) C Manoj said during an enquiry, the victim provided the details of the RTGS transactions along with abusive, desperate, objectionable, life-threatening, blackmailing messages and calls received from the alleged mobile and proxy numbers.

Notices were sent to Instagram, Facebook, Google and Rediff mail along with the concerned banks to get the beneficiary details, he said. A case has also been registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), police said. Post a preliminary enquiry, raids were also conducted to find the accused.

"Our team did proper recce prior to conducting the raids at possible hideouts of the accused. On Friday, the team with the help of local police staff succeeded to apprehend one accused identified as Anshul Srivastava from Unnao, Uttar Pradesh," the DCP said.

"After sustained interrogation, he disclosed about commission of crime. At his instance, one mobile phone, two alleged sim cards, two alleged atm cards and a bank cheque book were recovered and the accused was arrested in the case," he said.

Police said the accused was acquainted with the victim's elder sister. He fell desperately in love with the victim and became obsessed with her. Despite her not responding to his activities, he kept trying to impress her by sending e-mails.