Internet blackmailer nabbed

A software professional from Hyderabad was arrested by a special team of policemen from Mysore near here on charges of blackmailing women after eliciting personal information from them through online chats.

Describing his modus operandi, the police commissioner of Mysore City Pravin Sood told reporters that the thirty-year-old Neeraj Vaidya used to make friends with women on internet chat rooms and would extract personal information from them.

After obtaining the details, he would call or send messages through his mobile phone, threatening them that he would upload their photographs and personal details on pornographic websites if they failed to pay up.

A woman from Mysore, who was among the several victims of Neeraj Vaidya, lodged a complaint to the Mysore City police. The woman, whose identity the police refused to reveal, complained that she had already paid Rs 350,000 to Internet conman. But, the accused pestered her for an additional Rs 600,000.

Unable to bear to meet the extortion demands, the woman brought the matter to the notice of the Mysore City police, which constituted a special team. After obtaining all the information about Neeraj, the police advised the woman to continue the chat sessions with the accused.

“We traced him in Hyderabad with the help of the mobile phone number he was using to send the messages”, Sood told reporters.

Neeraj Vaidya was picked up from Hyderabad within three days of registering the complaint. The police also recovered Rs 165,000, a mobile phone and a laptop from the accused, who had worked in various software companies in Hyderabad. He was brought to Mysore, produced before the court and remanded in police custody.

“We have recovered a portion of the money paid by the victim. She had deposited the amount demanded by him in a bank account as directed by accused and he had already withdrawn the money. We are trying to recover the remaining amount”, Sood said.