In a sting operation, the cyber crime wing of the Central Crime Branch arrested four persons, including a film director, while they were trying to extort ₹5 crore from a businessman by blackmailing him about leaking video clips of his private moments with his wife.
The accused were identified as Santhosh Kumar N., 27, a film director and owner of Grand Sahara Movie Production House, and his associates — Prashanth S., 26, driver and personal assistant of the victim; Suresh S., 23, and Pradeep N., 22, both labourers. All of them are residents of Kengeri.
The police said the accused and the victim were family friends and used to travel together. Santhosh said he would transfer the photos they had taken on their trips from the husband’s phone. While transferring some pictures, he stumbled on video clips of the victim with his wife.
Investigations revealed that Santhosh, who worked as an associate director in Telugu and Kannada films, was preparing to direct a movie on his own. He had requested the victim and his wife to produce the film, but they refused citing financial reasons.
Santhosh then planned to extort money from the couple using the video clips. He allegedly accessed the mobile phones of the couple while they were kept for charging on a Mysuru-Bengaluru train on one of their trips together.
Using the clips, the accused began to blackmail the couple, demanding ₹5 crore, threatening to leak the clips on social media if they did not pay up.
The couple lodged a complaint with the police on Wednesday. The police arrested the accused. They have also recovered a laptop, five mobile phones and SIM cards among other gadgets.
Santhosh is also accused of murdering his mother-in-law and is named in a case registered at the Nazarbad police station in Mysuru.
