The Ernakulam Judicial First Class Magistrate on Wednesday allowed a two-day police custody of V. Jayachandran, 44, of Punnapra, accused in the Kochi blackmail case.
The case is that the accused conspired with others to blackmail moneyed businessmen after recording intimate and private personal acts of theirs.
The police had filed a petition in court seeking custody of the accused to investigate his involvement in the racket. The police said they needed to find out whether he had political backing.
The police took possession of the laptop and mobile phone of the accused and these were handed over to the Cyber Cell.
“After interrogating Jayachandran to get details of others involved, we will decide whether any political leaders have to be questioned or arrested,” a police officer said.
The court directed the police to conduct a medical examination of the accused.
Jayachandran was arrested from Thiruvananthapuram last week. He was allegedly a close associate of Bindiya, one of the accused in the case. Bindiya and Ruksana, another accused, had reportedly solicited wealthy businessmen. They, along with other accused Sanilan and Prajeesh, demanded Rs.3 crore from the businessmen for not making the video recordings public, the police said.
