Puri: Two men from Madhya Pradesh have been arrested for allegedly blackmailing a 24-year-old woman of Odisha’s Puri by threatening to circulate her private obscene videos, extorting a staggering Rs 19.50 lakh from her over several months.
The accused have been identified as Satendra Sharma (29) from Gwalior district and Atul Kaurav (19) from Bhind district in Madhya Pradesh. According to police, a portion of the extorted funds was traced to Kaurav’s bank account.
The victim, who lives with her family in a rented house in Puri, came into contact with Sharma through social media in February this year. Though they never met physically, their online interactions turned intimate. Police said Sharma secretly recorded explicit videos of the woman during video calls and later used them to blackmail her.
Under immense pressure, the woman, whose father runs a shop in Puri, resorted to desperate measures to meet the demands. She mortgaged her mother’s jewellery to secure loans and borrowed money from relatives. Over the last six months, she transferred a total of Rs 19.5 lakh to various bank accounts specified by the accused.
The situation escalated recently when Sharma allegedly sent one of the explicit videos to the victim’s mother and demanded an additional Rs 2 lakh. He further threatened to kill her parents and make the video viral if the payment was not made. Left with no choice, the woman approached the Cyber Crime and Economic Offences police station in Puri and lodged a complaint.
A case was registered, and investigators traced the money trail, which led them to Kaurav. A police team subsequently travelled to Madhya Pradesh and apprehended both accused in Gwalior.
