<p>The makeup artist of a Kannada actor has been arrested for trying to extort Rs 30 lakh from her by threatening to leak her nude pictures. Police arrested Mahantesh, 37, a resident of Bhuvaneshwarinagar near Hebbal, on October 22, days after the 35-year-old actor filed a complaint.</p>.<p>The actor acted in lead roles in Kannada films between 2013 and 2015 and later took up character roles. Work dried up after the pandemic.</p>.<p>She told police that an unknown person had messaged her on WhatsApp, saying he had her nude and semi-nude pictures and videos. He demanded Rs 30 lakh for not uploading them on social media and set a deadline for the payment. She initially ignored the messages, assuming he didn’t have any of the pictures. </p>.<p>The actor, however, was shocked when the man actually sent her some pictures as a “sample”. He also threatened to send them to her family. The actor ran to the police.</p>.<p>Northeast CEN Crime police led by inspector Santosh R Ram swung into action and tracked down Mahantesh, who turned out to be her own makeup artist.</p>.<p>A senior police officer said Mahantesh had stolen the password of the actor’s mobile phone, which she left with him during the film shoots. He found the images and videos on her phone and sent them to his number. He later decided to use them to blackmail her.</p>.<p>Police seized Mahantesh’s phone and deleted the actor’s pictures and videos from it. </p>.<p>Police were also shocked to learn that the actor had kept the images and videos on her phone in order to upload them to a mobile phone app. The app offers users money for sending images and videos to their connected profiles.</p>
<p>The makeup artist of a Kannada actor has been arrested for trying to extort Rs 30 lakh from her by threatening to leak her nude pictures. Police arrested Mahantesh, 37, a resident of Bhuvaneshwarinagar near Hebbal, on October 22, days after the 35-year-old actor filed a complaint.</p>.<p>The actor acted in lead roles in Kannada films between 2013 and 2015 and later took up character roles. Work dried up after the pandemic.</p>.<p>She told police that an unknown person had messaged her on WhatsApp, saying he had her nude and semi-nude pictures and videos. He demanded Rs 30 lakh for not uploading them on social media and set a deadline for the payment. She initially ignored the messages, assuming he didn’t have any of the pictures. </p>.<p>The actor, however, was shocked when the man actually sent her some pictures as a “sample”. He also threatened to send them to her family. The actor ran to the police.</p>.<p>Northeast CEN Crime police led by inspector Santosh R Ram swung into action and tracked down Mahantesh, who turned out to be her own makeup artist.</p>.<p>A senior police officer said Mahantesh had stolen the password of the actor’s mobile phone, which she left with him during the film shoots. He found the images and videos on her phone and sent them to his number. He later decided to use them to blackmail her.</p>.<p>Police seized Mahantesh’s phone and deleted the actor’s pictures and videos from it. </p>.<p>Police were also shocked to learn that the actor had kept the images and videos on her phone in order to upload them to a mobile phone app. The app offers users money for sending images and videos to their connected profiles.</p>
