One held for blackmailing Anoushka Shankar

A Mumbai-based man has been arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly blackmailing sitar player Anoushka Shankar with her pictures, officials said today. The man was arrested on Sept 15 and is being questioned by Delhi Police.

Delhi Police is investigating a case of blackmailing of young sitarist and legendary musician Pandit Ravi Shanker's daughter, Anoushka and has arrested a Mumbai-based man who allegedly accessed her photographs stored in her laptop.

HT Image

The man, whose identity has not been revealed, has been arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police following investigations in Mumbai after Ravi Shankar approached police last month complaining about the harassment meted out to his daughter, a senior police official said.

Police had last week registered a case under Section 386 of Indian Penal Code which relates to extortion by putting in fear of death or hurt and provides for a maximum punishment of 10 years in jail.

The official said the musician, who lives in the US, has told police that Anoushka had given her laptop to a service centre in south Delhi in February.

"We think that the material in the laptop was copied by someone. We interrogated the staff at the Apple Services Centre. Later, we zeroed in on the Mumbai-based man and arrested him," he said.

The man allegedly sent a series of e-mails to 28-year-old Anoushka, demanding money for not making public the photographs. The alleged blackmailer even asked for one lakh dollar in one e-mail.

Police did not state as to when the man was arrested.