Financier 'poses as CCB inspector to blackmail man with sex video', held

A financier who contested the 2018 Assembly election has been arrested for posing as a CCB inspector and blackmailing a cable operator with a video that showed him in a compromising position with a young woman.

Peenya police arrested Srinivasa Gaddige T, 41, on a complaint filed by a cable operator from Chokkasandra. The cable operator had an extramarital affair with a 19-year-old neighbour, who happened to work at Arush Enterprises Pvt Ltd, a finance company run by Gaddige. Gaddige had contested the election from Holalkere, Chitradurga, and lost.

The cable operator had once spent time with the woman in a hotel. Gaddige somehow learnt about the affair. In June, he called up the cable operator and introduced himself as CCB inspector Raju. He told him he possessed a video that showed him getting intimate with the woman in the hotel. But he soon hung up, saying he would call up a few days later as he was busy.

The next day, the woman told her boyfriend the “inspector” had told her boss — Gaddige — about the video and asked him to meet him.

But Gaddige never met the cable operator and instead spoke to him by phone, demanding Rs 10 lakh for getting “the inspector” to delete the video. The cable operator bargained down the amount to Rs 5 lakh and paid it in three instalments through the woman. On August 1, “the inspector” demanded another Rs 10 lakh to delete the video. That’s when the cable operator visited the CCB office and inquired about an inspector named Raju. He was shocked to learn there was no inspector by that name.

Dharmender Kumar Meena, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), said Gaddige was arrested for falsely posing as a police inspector.