30-year-old man arrested for recording relatives and friends on spycam, blackmailing for sexual favours

The accused, a private firm employee, would visit the houses of his relatives and friends, and place the USB-type camera in their bedrooms and bathrooms

The Northeast division cyber crime police on Saturday arrested a 30-year-old private firm employee for allegedly recording videos of his relatives and friends with a spy camera and blackmailing them for sexual favours.

Based on a complaint by one of the victims, the police tracked down the accused Mahesh V from T. Narasipura taluk in Mysuru district and recovered a laptop, memory cards and USB charger type hidden camera from him.

The police also found many other video clips recorded by the accused with which he was blackmailing the victims, but no one had filed a complaint fearing social stigma.

Anoop A Shetty, DCP, Northeast division, said the accused would target his relatives and friends, wherein he would visit their houses often and place the USB in the bedroom and bathroom to record the videos.

Using these videos, he would then contact the victims on their social media account with fake identity and blackmail them. The accused would also send clips of the videos to their account and seek online sexual favours, the police said.

While many victims obliged his demand fearing social stigma, one of the victims who was blackmailed noticed that the video was recorded in her bedroom and complained to the police.

Based on the complaint, the police tracked down the accused and arrested him. He was charged with blackmail, sexual harassment and also under various sections of the IT Act and remanded to judicial custody.