Mumbai: Man blackmails Bollywood actor's daughter; arrested
A 25-year-old man has been arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch for allegedly blackmailing and trying to extort money from a Bollywood actor's daughter. The identities of the victim and her family have not been revealed due to security reasons. The accused, Qumail Hanif Patani, a resident of the city's Malad area, was arrested by Unit 11 of Mumbai Crime Branch on Thursday.
According to reports, Patani contacted the 23-year-old victim through social media, threatening to circulate some of her private pictures. The accused had accessed her pictures and videos from the computer of his sister, who reportedly studied at the same college as the victim. After he demanded money from the victim, the latter informed her parents and filed a complaint at Bangur Nagar Police station.
"The accused sent the messages to the victim through social media and also immediately deleted them to erase his footprints. Qumail had threatened the actor's daughter to make her pictures viral. He then called the girl and demanded extortion," senior inspector Chimaji Adhav said, per reports. The cops nabbed the accused from his residence on Thursday after laying a trap.
According to Sharad Zine, Assistant Police Inspector of the Crime Branch, a case has been registered under various sections of the IPC and the IT Act. The accused has been booked under IPC Sections 354D (stalking), 384 (extortion), 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman) and 67A of the Information Technology Act (punishment for publishing/transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form).
In a similar piece of news, a man was recently arrested for blackmailing a woman on social media. The accused, a resident of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh, had been demanding a sum of Rs. 10,000 from victim for purportedly deleting some of her private pictures.
