The Chennai city police have arrested four men for allegedly blackmailing a woman by threatening her that they will morph her into obscene pictures and put it out on social media. The police said that they had already extorted Rs. 8 lakhs from her after befriending her on social media.

The complaint was filed at the Kumaran Nagar police station in Chennai by the woman’s father. Speaking to The News Minute, Pushparaj, inspector of Kumaran Nagar police station said, “The woman and the main accused Amalesh were in a relationship for the past three years. They became friends on Facebook and later fell in love. The woman had given Amalesh many gifts including laptop, mobile phone and transferred money through net banking,” he said.

Recently, they broke up, and since then he has been threatening the woman that he will morph her pictures and put it on social media. “He has many selfies with the woman and with his three friends, which he used to threaten her with into giving them more money,” said Pushparaj.

The woman continued giving them Rs. 10,000 in different instalments. She finally gathered the courage to inform her father about what had happened and he filed a police complaint. The father has stated in his complaint that they have been extorting money from him since 2014.

Police added that Amalesh’s friends had also taken money from the woman. The four accused in the case are Amalesh, who hails from Cuddalore, his friend Ruthra from Villupuram, Gokul from Cuddalore and Michael from Valasaravakkam. The four of them were staying at a rented room in Valasaravakkam.

Amalesh was pursuing a diploma in engineering and the 21-year-old woman was an engineering student and stays in West Saidapet.

A case has been filed under 120B (criminal conspiracy), 384 (punishment for extortion), 506(1) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of IPC and section 4 of woman harassment act. The four have been remanded to Puzhal prison.