VISAKHAPATNAM: Five men who blackmailed a homosexual youth and extorted money from him after taking his nude videos were arrested on Sunday in Visakhapatnam.
The accused have been identified as Mukkala Aditya (20), Ameeruddin Khan (26), P Arun Kumar (25), U Raviraj (19) and D Jitesh (21).
According to police, the victim T Rajesh (24) (name changed), an employee of a private company in MVP Colony, is a homosexual.
Recently, he joined a Facebook page named ‘Vizag Male to Male Only Vizag Boys’ where he befriended M Aditya, one of the accused.
They became friends. Soon after, Rajesh asked Aditya if they could meet in person. Aditya agreed. But he, along with his four friends, hatched a plan to make easy money.
“On July 12, Aditya told Rajesh that four of his friends wanted to join them. Soon, all the five reached Rajesh's residence. Raviraj, one of the accused went inside a room with Rajesh. Meanwhile, the other four, including Aditya who stood outside the room, captured nude videos of Rajesh. Then the four, posing as Task Force police personnel, entered the room and threatened Rajesh that they would reveal the incident to the public,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) D Nagendra Kumar.
“Knowing that Rajesh has a good bank balance, the accused demanded Rs 2 lakh from him. We have recovered Rs 1.36 lakh from the accused,” the JCP said, adding that the gang has in the past blackmailed lovers in city-parks after taking their pictures.
The police have registered a case under Section 419,506,384 r/w 34 of Indian Penal Code and 66C of the IT Act for extorting money and blackmailing .
The Facebook page ‘Vizag male to Male Only Vizag Boys’ has around 2,300 members.