KOCHI: The Police on Saturday arrested three people for extorting money from a Muvattupuzha native who allegedly sent a vulgar message to one of the accused persons on Instagram. The arrested are Jasly of Alappuzha, Abhijith of Aluva, and Salman of Nilambur.
According to the police, Jasly posted a reel on Instagram last month. Seeing the reel, the victim sent a personal message to her that had vulgar content.
On this, Jasly approached the police with a complaint against him. However, as the allegation was not grievous, the police directed her to get a court order to register an FIR into the incident. On this, the accused persons conspired to extort money from the victim. Thus, they contacted the Muvattupuzha native and demanded Rs 20 lakh to settle the case.
“Jasly was convinced by the other two accused to extort money from the victim. They spoke to the victim and his family members, demanding Rs 20 lakh to withdraw the case. Later, the family members negotiated with the accused persons and agreed to pay Rs 5 lakh. They sold the gold ornament of the victim’s recently-married sister to pay Rs 2 lakh and promised to pay the rest of the amount later,” a police official said.
However, the accused persons continued with threats to pay the remaining amount. “We came to know about the extortion incident recently. Thus, we spoke to the victim and his family members. The accused persons were called to the police station on Friday as part of the probe. After verifying their mobile phones and bank accounts, we received details about the extortion and decided to arrest the accused persons. They were later produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody,” said the officer.