JOIN USMan poses as 'lesbian model', gets nude photos of 40 girls
A 21-year-old man posed as a lesbian model on social media and secured nude photos of around 40 girls to blackmail them. Police caught him after weeks of online surveillance.
Prapanch Nachappa, 21, a Kodagu native studying final-year BCA at a college in OMBR Layout, Banaswadi, targeted girls interested in a modelling career. He seemed to have had a free run until November 2021 when Halasuru police began looking for him following a complaint by one of the victims. Police have also sent his phone for forensic examination.
His digital footprint showed he had opened multiple accounts on Instagram under female names. One of the profiles was called Prathiksha_Bohra. He used it to send a friend request to the victim last September.
After she accepted the request, he impressed her with his communication skills and revealed that he was “a model and lesbian”. In order to gain her sympathy, he told her that his neighbours had got to know that he’s lesbian and ill-treated him. Believing that she was interacting with a lesbian model, she sympathised with him.
Prapanch also claimed to have good contacts in the modelling industry and promised to place her. Towards this end, he asked for her nude photos. She initially refused but Prapanch offered her Rs 4,000 for each photo and succeeded in extracting some. The woman, however, suspected something fishy and blocked him on Instagram.
Prapanch didn’t give up. He opened another account called Prathii_bo and contacted her again for the nude photos. He threatened to upload her nude photos to social media if she didn’t cooperate with him.
Prapanch was so convincing as a “female model” on Instagram that police believe he cheated and blackmailed about 40 young women, most of them college students, by offering them a career in modelling. He sought and received both money and other favours from them, police said.
Many of these girls were so desperate to become models that they sent him their nude photos and videos without verifying his identity. Prapanch offered Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 for each photo, police said. Some of his victims tried to kill themselves while others paid him to stop their pictures from being leaked.