Man held for hacking social media accounts of beauty pageant finalist, trying to extort Rs1lakh

According to police, the accused blocked the social media accounts of the complainant, a former beauty pageant contestant, and demanded one lakh rupees if she wanted her social media accounts back.

The Versova police recently arrested a man, Chandraprakash Joshi, for allegedly hacking the social media accounts of a former beauty pageant finalist to extort ₹1 lakh from her. The police traced him in Vishakhapatnam three days back and interrogated him after which he was brought to Mumbai.

The complainant (in photo) claimed that the accused blocked her social media accounts and demanded ₹1 lakh to unblock the same. (HT Photo)

According to police, the complainant, Arisha Jain, on November 15 received a e-mail, which stated her Instagram account would be deleted within 24 hours and if she did not want it to happen, to click on a link in the mail.

“She clicked on the link, but nothing happened. She then tried to open her Instagram account, which was blocked. She then tried to access her Facebook and Snapchat accounts that were also blocked, which is when she realised her accounts had been hacked,” said a police officer.

According to the police, the next day she received a Whatsapp message from Joshi, demanding one lakh rupees if she wanted her social media accounts back. When Jain approached the police, they told her to speak to the accused to buy some time.