Jagatsinghpur: Harassed after being blackmailed for nearly two years, a 23-year-old woman chose to end her life at Tentoi village under Naugaon block in Jagatsinghpur district yesterday.

The deceased has been identified as Laxmipriya Das. A youth had been blackmailing her with obscene pictures of her since two years.

Her family members said 25-year-old Deepak Behera, who runs a chicken centre in Gangadahat, had barged into their house in January 2017 and managed to tie hands and legs of the girl. He later striped Laxmipriya's clothes off and took her pictures. Thereafter, he started fixing hard copies of the photos on the walls of their house and other places at the village. However, the intention behind his illicit act is yet to be ascertained.

“Even though, a group of locals reprimanded Behera for the same, he did not pay any heed. Later, we lodged a complaint with police but the cops did not take any action in this regard,” said Sakuli, mother of the deceased.

On Thursday morning, an obscene picture of the young woman was again found on a door of the house. Later, the hapless woman closed the door of her room and hanged herself to death. Soon after reports of her suicide spread, the accused absconded from the village. However, Naugaon police detained the father of accused for interrogation.