Odisha police have arrested a 26-year-old man from Mumbai, who allegedly staged his murder early this month, taking advantage of the rumours fueled by fake videos on WhatsApp and Twitter attacks on migrant workers in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
Odisha police said they arrested Sarat Parichha, who belonged to Bariagaon village in Gajapati district in Odisha, for allegedly trying to extort money from his relatives by sending them fake videos of him getting beaten up to death in Tamil Nadu.
Parichha, a father of three daughters, allegedly made a video call to his family members on March 6 in which he claimed to be in the Thoothkudi district of Tamil Nadu, police said.
Police said that subsequently, his family received a picture of a body sent from his mobile phone and calls, demanding ransom for releasing the body.
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Gajapati superintendent of police (SP) Swathy S Kumar said when the family members of Parichha lodged a complaint on March 7 about the ransom call, initial investigations showed the call location to be from Mumbai.
{{/usCountry}}Gajapati superintendent of police (SP) Swathy S Kumar said when the family members of Parichha lodged a complaint on March 7 about the ransom call, initial investigations showed the call location to be from Mumbai.
{{/usCountry}}“We told the family members not to send any money and began the investigation. Though he initially travelled to Kerala, he later went to Tamil Nadu and claimed to be working in Thoothukudi district,” said the SP, adding that the man had moved to Mumbai in January.
Though Parichha’s wife Minati did not find anything amiss, her family members said he stopped sending any money to her for more than a month and did not even talk to her.
The SP said that after tracing the source of the call and the message, a team of Odisha police travelled to Mumbai to arrest Parichha.
The SP said that he was brought to Odisha upon his arrest, and after interrogation, it was found that he sent the video of a man from Jharkhand who was allegedly beaten to death a few months ago.
“The photos that he sent were him staging his own death,” the SP said.
Parichha has been charged with extortion and forgery.
After the fake videos of attacks on north Indian workers surfaced online ahead of Holi, Tamil Nadu director general of police C. Sylendra Babu said the videos were of brawls that had happened long ago. The police had termed the videos to be “false” and “mischievous”. The TN police have booked several opposition politicians in Tamil Nadu for sharing fake videos on social media.