The Bengaluru police have arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly morphing photos of a 17-year-old boy and extorting money from him.
According to the Rajajinagar Police, 17-year-old Prem* was active on Instagram, where he would chat with his friends a lot.
In January this year, Prem allegedly received a message from a person with the same Instagram handle as his.
“The man had created a fake account in my name and he had sent me an attachment along with a message. It was a nude photo of a boy and he had morphed my face onto it,” Prem’s complaint reads.
The man, who identified himself as Vishwanath, allegedly told Prem that he would make his nude photographs public if he did not pay up Rs 10 lakh.
In January this year, Prem allegedly met Vishwanath at the Marathahalli bus stop twice, where he paid Rs 50,000 and Rs 1,50,000 in order to ensure that the morphed photos are not published online.
Later in February, the boy allegedly gave Vishwanath Rs 36,000 and 14 silver pieces weighing 10 gm each on multiple occasions. On February 14, Prem allegedly gave Vishwanath Rs 4,00,000 along with 11 pieces of silver. In March, the boy paid Vishwanath the last installment of 25 silver pieces.
“Vishwanath promised to delete the photos. But in April, I once again got a call from him demanding more money,” Prem’s complaint states.
Meanwhile, the parents of the boy, who finally noticed the disappearance of cash and silver from their locker at home, decided to approach the police and register a complaint.
“That’s when the boy told his parents about the nude pictures and that he had taken the money in order to pay Vishwanath. On April 3, the boy’s parents came and filed a complaint,” the Rajajinagar Police told TNM.
An FIR was registered under section 384 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC along with sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by impersonation) of the Information Technology Act.
The police arrested Vishwanth on April 13 and the magistrate remanded him to five days police custody. Upon questioning, Vishwanath allegedly told the police that he had hacked the Instagram account of a minor girl, who was friends with Prem.
“The boy and girl were in a relationship and he had sent his pictures to her. They were not completely nude ones but the boy had clicked some photos without a shirt. Vishwanath confessed to morphing the picture and extorting money out of the boy. When he hacked into the girl’s account, he found that the boy’s parents were rich. So, he decided to blackmail him,” the police added.
Vishwanath is currently in judicial custody.
*Name changed to protect identity