Drug addicts blackmail girl with intimate photos from stolen phone

They wanted to sell off phone but changed plan on finding pictures

Three college students robbed a girl of her mobile phone and tried to blackmail her with her intimate photographs to buy narcotics, police said. The suspects extensively used Facebook to shadow the girl and blackmail her.

The youths had waylaid the girl as she walked to her college near Singasandra, Hosur Road, south Bengaluru, on October 4. They took away her only possession — a mobile phone — and fled the spot, police said.

The girl, who is a student of hotel  management, approached the jurisdictional Parappana Agrahara police station and filed a complaint. Police, however, could not immediately trace the suspects.

The youths wanted to sell off the mobile phone and buy drugs, but they could not open it as it was password-protected. But they succeeded in removing the memory card. They inserted it into one of their mobile phones and were excited to find the girl’s intimate photos and a video with her boyfriend. They also found out the name of the girl and her male friend, a senior police officer said.

The youths — Ashwin Moses, 21, an engineering student, Akshay David, 20, a BBA student, and Kiran, 21, a BCom student, all residents of Hosapalya — then devised a hideous plan to extort money from the girl.

Friend requests on FB
They searched for the girl and her boyfriend on Facebook and sent both of them friend request. The couple denied the request as the suspects were complete strangers. The suspects, however, didn’t give up.

A few days later, they contacted the girl on Facebook Messenger and showed her the photographs and the video. The suspects demanded Rs 1 lakh in cash or else they would leak the photographs and the video.

At first, the girl ignored the threat by the trio, but the youths kept up the pressure. The distraught victim confided in her male friend, and both of them approached the police on December 2. Police traced the mobile phone to Singasandra but the youths remained elusive. The sleuths asked the girl to call up the youths and offer to pay up Rs 50,000. She did as told.

The trap
The suspects walked into the trap and asked her to meet them in Singasandra. The girl went up to meet them while plainclothesmen kept a watch from a distance. The youths showed up and the police caught them, the officer said. A case has been registered at the Parappana Agrahara police station, and the suspects have been sent to  the Central Prison.