Tenkasi woman kills self after ‘friend’ uploads private videos online; three held
TENKASI: A 26-year-old woman of Maruthamputhur village in Tenkasi district died by suicide on Tuesday after a ‘social media friend’ used her purported personal videos and photos to blackmail and sexually abuse her. A few other locals who got access to the videos also started harassing her, forcing the victim to end her life, police said. The videos, which were deleted earlier by the police, reemerged online a few days ago, causing emotional distress to the woman.
In a suicide note recovered from her room, the woman had named Sakthivel (the main accused), Murugesan, Muthuraj, her father-in-law, and Sakthivel’s wife for pushing her to take the extreme step, sources said.
The victim was married to a man seven years ago. The couple had no children. The two had frequent quarrels and the woman started living at her grandparents’ home located in the same village, sources said.
As per the initial investigation of the Alangulam police, the victim got acquainted with Sakthivel (35) from Kurumbalaperi village near Pavoorchatram through Instagram. The man, after befriending her, recorded her private photos and videos, and used them later to blackmail her for sexual favours and extracted Rs 3 lakh from her by threatening to release them online. The victim informed her parents, who lodged a complaint with the All Women Police Station in Alangulam a few days ago. The police held inquiry and made the accused delete the videos and photos from his device at that time, sources said.
However, the same videos allegedly started circulating again on social media recently. “The prime suspect Sakthivel allegedly sent the videos to the father-in-law of the victim and some other persons. In her suicide note, the victim alleged that the three persons she had named had shown her the videos and coerced her to yield to their sexual and monetary demands. Unable to bear the torture, she ended her life,” said a police official.
Superintendent of Police S Aravind told TNIE that the police have detained three of the five suspects named in the FIR till Tuesday evening.
It may be noted that the Union government had submitted an SOP to curb hosting of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) contents on social media and other online platforms to the Madras High Court on October 7.
According to the SOP, the affected women can approach one-stop centres (OSC) or the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) or the local police. Upon receipt of the complaint, the OSC shall provide the victim assistance, give psychological counselling, assist them to file complaint with the local police, and help them get legal assistance through the district legal services authority or empanelled lawyers.
(To overcome suicidal thoughts, contact TN’s health department helpline 104 or Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050.)
