Chennai, Sep 26 (IANS): An engineering dropout from Tamil Nadu's Tirumullaivoyal, who allegedly extorted money and valuables from several women after befriending them on Facebook under a string of fake profiles, has been arrested, police said on Sunday.

Police said that Lokesh, 26, used to befriend women, who were seeking friendship through social media platforms, mainly Facebook, using fake profiles with photos of different people and names.

He would then enter into intimate relationships with these women, get their details, take screenshots of chats with them, and threaten to share these details with their friends and relatives.

Police registered a case after a college student lodged a complaint that she was threatened by a person whom she had befriended on Facebook and had demanded that she hand over jewellery and cash.

After his arrest on Saturday, Lokesh was produced before a magistrate's court, which sent him to judicial custody.

Police said that he had cheated and threatened several women in Puducherry, Dindigul, Coimbatore, and Kanyakumari and even a woman from Malayasia and had taken money and other valuables from them.

A senior police officer said that the police are checking whether he had cheated more people and whether there were any associates who were working with him.