Two Held In Bihar For Blackmailing Pune Youth Who Died By Suicide

Pune: Kharadi police have arrested two men from Bihar for allegedly blackmailing a 22-year-old Pune resident with an obscene video recording and threatening to implicate him in a false drug case. The victim, Shikhar Saxena, died by suicide on Oct 1.

The suspects, Akashkumar Sanjay Singh (18) and Rajkumar Sampurna Anand Singh (22), allegedly extorted ₹1.77 lakh from Saxena through five bank accounts. Police have seized seven mobile phones, a laptop and a tablet worth around ₹2.25 lakh. A court has remanded the duo in police custody until Oct 30.

According to police, the suspects contacted Saxena through fake Instagram profiles created in women's names and persuaded him to move to Telegram. During a video call, they allegedly recorded an obscene video and threatened to circulate it and implicate him in a drug case. One of the suspects reportedly contacted him using the name Ajaykumar Bhatia.

Saxena's father lodged a complaint on Oct 14. A technical investigation and analysis of financial transactions helped police trace the suspects to Bihar and freeze ₹1.14 lakh in the five bank accounts.

Police are searching for two other suspects, Aniket Gupta of Ludhiana, allegedly a key accomplice, and Krish Kumar of Arunachal Pradesh, whose bank account was allegedly used to receive the extortion money.

A team led by Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Chavan and Assistant Police Inspector Ravindra Godse carried out the operation with support from the cyber police team.

Chavan said citizens facing online blackmail or threats of false criminal cases should not pay extortionists. They can approach the nearest police station or call the national cybercrime helpline 1930.