The Cyber Crime Wing of the Central Crime Branch arrested a 25-year-old youth on charges of extortion.
The police took up investigation following a complaint lodged by a girl student. The youth got introduced to her over a social media. They continued their interactions on WhatsApp. At one point, he asked her to give her jewellery on the pretext of helping the underprivileged. Sensing trouble, she hesitated and refused to do so.
He threatened that he would disclose their WhatsApp conversations to her parents and forced her to give 13.5 sovereigns of jewellery and ₹17,000 in cash. The girl lodged the complaint with the police.
On her complaint, the police traced the youth, who was identified Lokesh, 25, in Thirumullaivoyal. The accused is an engineering dropout. The police said the youth began cheating young women due to his financial issues.
A police officer said, “Preliminary investigation showed that he had cheated more than 20 women in Chennai, Coimbatore, Dindigul, Kanniyakumari and Malaysia. We are analysing the call records and chats of the accused to find out the victims who were cheated by him. Investigation is on.”
The accused was arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
