Odisha youth arrested for blackmailing FB friend

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jul 11, 2017 at 12:34 AM Updated On : Jul 11, 2017 at 4:21 PM

Cuttack: Police have arrested a youth for allegedly harassing, threatening and blackmailing a girl student of Bhubanananda Orissa School of Engineering (BOSE) here, police said today.

The youth identified as Ashish Kumar Panda (32) was arrested by Mangalabag police late on Sunday night from a hotel at Pilgrim Road by a police team led by Mangalabag PS official Abhimanyu Das based on a complaint lodged by the girl student at the Mangalabag police station. He was forwarded to court today.

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Ashish hailing from Berhampur after a failed love affair with the girl student was allegedly blackmailing her by posting a nude photograph of her on social networking site Facebook. He had even threatened to kill her by pouring acid on her.

“The arrested youth, Ashish hails from Berhampur and was working as the zonal business manager for West Bengal and Odisha in a private company. We have seized two mobile phones from his possession,” informed Mangalabag PS IIC Arun Swain.

As per information, Ashish had sent a friend request on social media networking site Facebook to the girl student hailing from Khordha district in 2015.The girl student had accepted his friend request.

After three months, Ashish proposed to the girl student and during Durga Puja in the same year gifted her a tablet.

However, towards the end of 2016, following a dispute, their affair broke and Ashish took back the tablet from the girl student. But unluckily, the said tablet contained a nude picture of the girl student in a towel which in turn turned out to be an advantage for Ashish to carry out his nefarious designs.

This year, Ashish opened a fake account on Facebook posing as Lucky Maharana and after sharing the said nude image of the BOSE student on it started blackmailing her. He even threatened her family over the phone.

On May 23, this year, while the BOSE student was coming from her home to the institute to appear her examinations, Ashish hurled abuses and even heckled her outside the gate. It was here that the student told her family about her two-year-old dealings with Ashish.

Based on the BOSE student’s complaint Mangalabag police on June 1 this year, registered a case under sections 341,294,354(A),354(D),506,509 of the IPC and sections 66(E) and 66 of the Information and Technology Act and investigated the matter leading to Ashish’s arrest yesterday.