Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (EP)

Bantwal, Feb 19: Bantwal town police personnel have arrested a man who used to allegedly blackmail women after coaxing them to have sex with them.

The arrested accused, identified as Radhakrishna, a resident of Mandadi here, was produced in the court on Friday February 18.

The matter came to light after he allegedly shared nude photos of a woman residing at Nithyananda Nagar on a WhatsApp group. He was arrested on the basis of a police complaint lodged by the victim's husband.

Radhakrishna who had clicked the photo of the woman was harassing her, demanding her to pay him Rs 4.48 lac, and had threatened that he would upload the photo on social media if the amount was not paid. He had switched off his mobile phone after that and remained quiet.

He had later shown the picture of the woman to her husband, threatened him demanding money, created a WhatsApp group of 17 people including the victim’s husband, and shared the nude pictures of the woman in it.

Investigation revealed that Radhakrishna had indulged in sex with several women known to him and extorted money from them. The accused had allegedly taken more than ten married women and girls to lodges and physically exploited them, police sources said.

Vivekananda, who worked as SI under police circle inspector Nanjunde Gowda and who cracked the Cyanide Mohan case is the current police circle inspector of Bantwal town police station. He has now cracked the Radhakrishna case.

SI Avinash, staff Ganesh Prasad, Nagaraj and Raghavendra took part in the operation in the leadership of town police inspector Vivekananda, under guidance from Bantwal DySP Pratap Singh Thorata, under directions from additional SP Kumar Chandra and SP Rishikesh Sonavane.