BENGALURU: A man and his mother are on the run after being accused of blackmail and extortion by a 23-year-old women. The victim was the prime accused’s classmate in primary school and they later came in contact on social media.
In a complaint lodged on Thursday, Priya (name changed), a resident of Manjunathanagar in Nagasandra, said the accused, V Karthik from Pavagada in Tumakuru, extorted Rs 5 lakh from her by blackmailing her with private photos. She also said the accused morphed her photographs from social media. When she informed Karthik’s mother (accused no. 2) about this, the latter sided with her son.
Priya stated in the complaint that she pledged gold ornaments of her family members to pay the duo. When the demand for money kept on increasing, she approached the Bagalagunte police.
The accused started blackmailing Priya in September last year. She didn’t file the complaint then as she had been keeping the matter secret from her family. Only after her family members asked her about the UPI transactions and the gold ornaments she had pledged, she disclosed the whole matter, and then filed a police complaint.
In her complaint, the woman said she was at her uncle’s house in Nagasandra when Karthik asked her for money after threatening to upload her private photos on social media. “The victim sent him the money from her uncle’s account. When he blackmailed her again, she called Karthik’s mother and informed her. His mother is also accused of taking her son’s side. The victim then pledged her uncle’s bracelet and a gold chain at a gold loan finance firm and gave Karthik the money. After the victim’s family learned about the matter, she demanded the money from Karthik who allegedly threatened to kill her,” police said quoting from the victim’s complaint.
A case of extortion (Section 384) along with other sections of the IPC have been registered against the mother and son.
“The mother and son are yet to be arrested as they are absconding. The complainant has claimed that Karthik was her classmate in primary school. Since the victim claims that he blackmailed her with her private photographs, the two probably were in a relationship and was terminated later. The arrest of the accused will throw light on the complaint,” said an officer.