Friend request on Instagram leads to the extortion of Rs 12.58 lakh from a custom officer’s wife

A man, identified as Naveen Kashyap, has been arrested for blackmailing a custom officer’s wife by threatening her that he would share her private pictures online.

The incident started when the woman received a friend request on Instagram from a girl in February 2021. During the conversation, the social media friend asked for nude pictures of the woman, and trusting her, she shared the pictures.

Later, the user leaked the pictures to the 25-year-old blackmailer, Naveen Kashyap. Naveen extorted around Rs 12.58 lakh from the woman for one year. She first paid the man Rs 2 lakh, and as per his demand, she kept paying him by selling her jewellery.

According to the complaint registered, the accused had once come down to Kharghar as well and molested the woman.

 Senior police inspector Sandeepan Shinde said, “Fed up with the blackmailing and paying money, she registered a complaint in August and, with the help of the mobile number of the accused, we traced him to Himachal Pradesh and arrested him.”

According to police, the accused is originally from Haryana and is a hotel management graduate and was working in a hotel in Himachal Pradesh. He had no previous record of crime.