The Rachakonda Cyber Crime police arrested a 23-year-old man on Saturday for stalking a woman online and extorting money from customers after pretending to be the victim and promising sexual favours. Police arrested the accused, Naveen Kumar, a resident of Nizampet and employee of Sun Diagnostic Centre in Khammam, and seized a smartphone from his possession.
According to a press release issued by the Rachakonda police, the victim and the accused were classmates during intermediate in JVS Chaitanya College in Kothagudem. Police said Naveen bore a grudge against the victim after the woman rejected his advances while in college.
Following this, the accused started sending distasteful messages to the victim on WhatsApp during night-time. As the harassment continued, the woman blocked him on WhatsApp and also blocked his number from their class groups. The victim, being the administrator of the group, kept deleting his posts on the group which angered the accused.
Following this, Naveen created a profile on Facebook pretending to be the victim and posted morphed obscene images of her. Further, he began collecting money from people in return for sexual favours. Offering sex chats to nude video calls, the accused began extorting money in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 1,500. He also provided his PhonePe number, Google Pay number and SBI account number for “customers” to deposit the money. The accused also posted sexually explicit messages on the fake FB profile and also put up morphed vulgar pictures of the victim.
Within a few days, the profile came to the notice of the victim when she filed a complaint with the Rachakonda police. The accused was finally nabbed by police officials at Aramghar in Rajendranagar and was produced in court. A case has been registered against the accused under 419 IPC and Section 66 and 67 of the Information and Technology Act.