Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh), Aug 2 (IANS): A 23-year-old youth in Andhra Pradesh's Kadapa town has been arrested for blackmailing and extorting money from over 300 women he lured into sexual relationships with him, police said on Monday.

The victims include 200 young girls and around 100 married women from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, a police officer said.

DSP B. Sunil Kumar said that accused C. Prasanna Kumar, going by different names such as Prashant Reddy, Raja Reddy, and Tony, would befriend women and girls, on social media and entrap them.

He would lure the victims into a sexual relationship, take their nude and semi-nude photographs, and later extort money and jewellery from them by threatening to upload the pictures and videos on social media platforms.

Police recovered Rs 1.26 lakh and 30 grams of gold from the youth, who was arrested on Saturday.

Though none of the victims reported him to the police for fear of being shamed, Prasanna Kumar's misdeeds came to light when the police picked him and interrogated him in connection with a cheating case filed by Srinivas, who was promised a job in the Telangana Secretariat. Police chanced upon the victims' photographs and videos, in Prasanna Kumar's mobile phone during the interrogation.

Prasanna Kumar, a resident of Praddaturu town, had been sent to jail on several occasions for crimes ranging from chain-snatching, and burglary. After being released from jail in 2017, he started targeting women.