TIRUCHY: A day after a third-year engineering student of Anna University, Tiruchy regional campus, died by suicide on the Rameswaram-Chennai railway section near Tiruchy, the Pudukkottai police on Sunday arrested five persons on charges of blackmailing him with private pictures.
The student, a native of Srivilliputhur in Virudhunagar, was found dead on the tracks near Kumaramangalam late on Saturday. The Government Railway Police (GRP) received information around 11.30 pm. They identified the body and later shifted it to Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital for post-mortem.
Police said the 21-year-old left behind a suicide note at his house near the campus. The note, recovered by GRP officers, stated that he had been sexually assaulted and then blackmailed by a group of men threatening to leak his private photos and videos unless he paid them money. The case, first registered by the GRP, was later transferred to Mandaiyur police in Pudukkottai, which arrested five suspects by Sunday evening. Their names were not revealed till late night.
Sources said the student had befriended one of the accused on social media. The man, a resident of Ariyamangalam in Tiruchy, gained his trust before recording private photos and videos when they met recently. He and his associates allegedly extorted money from the 21-year-old on several occasions, threatening to leak the visuals on social media. Unable to meet their repeated demands, police said, he appears to have taken the extreme step.
(Assistance for those having suicidal thoughts is available on health department helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050)