When Instagram friendship turned a nightmare for married woman
Chaithanya.Swamy@timesofindia.com 08.11.2024
Bengaluru : A 37-year-old married woman’s friendship with an Instagram acquaintance landed her in deep trouble as the latter extorted gold ornaments and cash from her using her nude photographs, which he also sent to her relatives and friends. He even contacted her husband, resulting in her being sent out of the marital home. Police took swift action and arrested the accused.
According to the police complaint lodged by Radhika (name changed), she got married in 2012 and has an 11-yearold daughter. Her husband is in the real estate business. The couple developed differences over the past four years but they continued to live together. In early 2021, she befriended Abhishek M Naik, 24, a private firm employee, on Instagram. Naik had two accounts — ‘Abhi_373’ and ‘Abhishek_Naik_373’. After a few days of friendship on social media, the duo exchanged phone numbers and started texting regularly. Radhika shared with Naik her marital issues. He took advantage of her situation and counselled her. She felt comfortable with him, and the duo started making WhatsApp video calls, speaking for hours.
Radhika considered Naik a trustworthy partner and started posing nude on the video calls. She also sent him nude photos and videos of herself. He also recorded her audio calls and saved the audio messages sent by her. Over time, the duo developed differences and Radhika started avoiding Naik. He then began blackmailing her for ransom by threatening to leak her nudes. She gave him gold ornaments and cash on multiple occasions. As he demanded more money and gold, Radhika informed him she didn’t have any more valuables to part with. He threatened to send her nudes to her family members and friends. Naik got in touch with her husband over phone and informed him about the affair. Her husband threw Radhika out of the house in May, and she and her daughter began living with her sister.
She blocked Naik’s number and changed her mobile number thereafter. But he continued to be in touch with her husband and managed to collect her and her family members and friends’ numbers. He again started harassing her and recently, collected the address of her sister’s house from her husband and came in search of her on Oct 5. She learnt he was showing her nudes to people in the area and asking for the address. He even showed the nudes to her sister’s office staff. They alerted her sister, after which Radhika lodged a complaint.
A senior police officer said Radhika met Abhishek on multiple occasions and they were in a relationship. When she avoided him, he became possessive and wanted her back in his life. “We caught him red-handed when he was near her sister’s house and arrested him.” A case has been registered under Information Technology Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 354C (voyeurism) & 384 (extortio
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