UP realtor blackmails woman friend by posting obscene photos on social media, held

A 35-year-old managing director of a Lucknow-based realty firm was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly blackmailing a law student after uploading her obscene pictures on social networking sites. The accused was arrested from a hotel in Greater Noida where he had come on a business trip, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, Bharat Pratap Rao, is originally from Deoria in Uttar Pradesh, police said.

Vineet Jaiswal, superintendent of police (rural), Gautam Budh Nagar, said that Rao had met the victim, a resident of Greater Noida, through a common friend in 2015, and tricked her into a relationship by telling her that he was unmarried. The woman was a minor when she first met him, police said.

The two were in a relationship for almost four years, police said, adding that the woman recently came to know that Rao is married and he has two children. She then tried to distance herself from the relationship, they said.

“The accused started blackmailing her. He started posting objectionable photos of the victim on social networking sites,” Jaiswal said. The student then informed her mother who filed a complaint at Kasna police station on March 7.

Ajay Kumar, station house officer, Kasna police station, said that a case was registered against the accused under Section 292 (public exhibition of obscenity), Section 499 (defamation) and also under sections 66 and 67 of IT Act, “We had put the accused under electronic surveillance. On Tuesday, we received information about his presence in a hotel in Greater Noida. A police team conducted a search and arrested him from the spot,” he said.

Police also recovered a mobile phone, a Toyota Fortuner SUV and some documents from his possession.

The SHO said the accused has a history of cheating and forgery. “At least three cases are registered against him at Wazirganj and Goshainganj police stations under sections of cheating, forgery and criminal intimidation. He has also cheated several people for sale and purchase of property. We are investigating if he has tricked other girls into making a relationship,” he said.

The accused was produced in court and sent to judicial custody.