Two Bihar men held in Pune over blackmail of Kharadi techie who died by suicide

Pune Police have arrested two men from Bihar on the charge of extorting Rs 1.77 lakh by blackmailing a young man with an obscene video. The investigation concerns a 22-year-old man working with an IT company, who died by suicide in Kharadi on October 1.

Those arrested are Akashkumar Sanjay Singh (18) of Baikunthpur in Gopalganj district and Rajkumar Sampurnanand Singh (20) of Barhat in Banka district. A team led by Sub-Inspector Santosh Mhetre took them into custody and arrested them on October 21 from Danapur in Patna district. Their mobile phones have been seized.

The two were produced on Tuesday before Judicial Magistrate First Class B. S. Bankar. The court had given them police custody on Monday. It has now been extended till October 31.

According to the police, around September 29 the accused contacted the young man from a fake Instagram account created in a girl's name. They then drew him into an obscene video call through a Telegram link and recorded the call. Blackmail followed, and he was forced to deposit Rs 1.77 lakh into various bank accounts. The police suspect that one of the accounts is in the name of a dead person. Akashkumar is alleged to have posed as "Haryana Police officer Ajaykumar Bhatia" and threatened to implicate the young man in a drug trafficking case.

The young man's father filed a complaint at Kharadi police station on October 14. He said that on September 30 one of the accused called the son's phone. As the phone was switched off, the call went to the mother's phone. The caller first said he was a friend and wanted some PDFs, then said they had met while playing PUBG. When the father called back, the man said he was a sub-inspector from Haryana and wanted to arrest the son in a drug case. Suspicious, the father set out from Uttarakhand for Pune that night. The son died by suicide the next day. On October 13, the father received another call, from a person who said he was speaking from a "courier office".

The police have registered a case under Sections 108 (abetment of suicide), 308(6) (extortion) and 351(4) (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Sections 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 204 (impersonating a public servant) and provisions of the IT Act were added later.

Four more suspects are wanted by the police, including the alleged main accused, Aniketkumar Gupta. Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Chavan said phone calls, social media accounts and bank transactions are being examined. Senior officers are monitoring the investigation.

Seeking extension of custody, Assistant Public Prosecutor Nitin Adagale told the court that the wanted accused are in another state and the police are trying to get their details. The email IDs, Instagram and Telegram accounts linked to the crime, and internet banking details are being examined. The police are also checking whether the accused have targeted anyone else.

The father demanded that all the accused and their associates be arrested and severely punished. "They have committed a crime no less than murder. My son must get justice," he said. He also urged the police and the government to take stringent steps against cyber criminals operating across the country.