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Anoushka's alleged blackmailer seeks bail
The man arrested for allegedly trying to extort money from Anoushka Shankar, after obtaining her private photographs by hacking her emails, on Tuesday sought bail from a Delhi court but Delhi Police opposed the relief.
A man, who was arrested for allegedly trying to extort money from Anoushka Shankar, daughter of Sitar maestro Pt Ravi Shankar, after obtaining her private photographs by hacking her emails, on Tuesday sought bail from a Delhi court but Delhi Police opposed the relief.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja, after hearing arguments from accused Junaid Khan and prosecution, reserved the order on the application for tomorrow.
In his plea, Khan, arrested from Mumbai by Delhi Police's Special Cell on September 14, claimed he belongs to a respectable family and had been implicated in the case.
The accused said he was a sub-dealer in a share trading firm. "The present FIR was the first case against him and the police had also failed to recover anything from him," his counsel submitted.
Public Prosecutor Naveen Kumar, on the other hand, opposed the bail saying the accused had demanded USD 1,22,000 from Shankar, who is residing in the USA, on the basis of her private picture retrieved after hacking her emails.
A senior Home Ministry official had shot off a letter to the Delhi Police on August eight on a complaint forwarded to him by Pt Ravi Shankar stating his daughter was being harassed and blackmailed on the material stolen from her emails and lap-top and being asked huge money in return for the pictures.
Anoushka had herself sent a complaint to the Delhi Police on September one from the USA following the threats. According to the police, Khan had sent threatening emails to Anoushka after creating an email in her name.
She said some material, including her pictures, were stolen from her laptop which she had submitted to a South Delhi-based service centre on February eight last year.
The police alleged Khan had first sent threatening emails from the UAE and then from Mumbai. He was nailed after the police found that phone number allegedly used for the purpose had been registered in Khan's name. Khan had been booked under IPC provisions relating to extortion, theft and others.
