HYDERABAD: Saidabad police on Thursday sent a man accused in a honey-trap case to judicial custody after three days of police questioning. Cops said Kondabhattula Pavan Kumar used fake social media accounts bearing women’s identities to chat with more than 1,000 people and extort money by threatening to circulate their intimate photographs and videos.
Investigators said Pavan primarily used photographs of a woman from Kolkata to operate a fake profile under the name ‘Chandana’. He allegedly used 13 Instagram accounts and 14 Facebook accounts to target people and extort lakhs of rupees.
A Hyderabad police official told TNIE that although Pavan had interacted with more than 1,000 people online, the number of suspected victims was lower. Three cases have been registered against him at Saidabad, Khairatabad and Saifabad police stations. In the Khairatabad case, one of the victims, identified as detective inspector N Balaswamy, was suspended over charges in another case.
Police said Pavan created fake Facebook and Instagram accounts using women’s photographs and sent friend and follow requests to people. After establishing contact, he allegedly steered conversations towards sexual content, sent nude photographs and persuaded the recipients to share intimate photographs or videos of themselves. Nearly 100 people shared such material, police said.
Pavan reportedly stored the images and videos on multiple mobile phones and social media accounts. He would then introduce himself as the brother of the woman whose identity he had assumed and contact the victims through phone calls, WhatsApp and social media. In some cases, he also met them in person.
Police said that Pavan threatened to expose the victims’ intimate material and have his purported sister file complaints against them unless they paid him money.