Bengaluru: Young engineer ends life at Malleshwaram; Police suspect blackmail by Instagram ‘Nude Gang’

Team Udayavani, Jan 26, 2022, 3:54 PM IST

Image credit: AFP

Bengaluru: Police have expressed suspicions that a blackmails by a ‘Nude gang’  on Instagram may have pushed a young engineer to suicide at the rail tracks near Malleshwaram.

The young engineer had ended his life by coming under a train after allegedly being blackmailed over obscene pictures on Instagram. Bhaskar Rao, Additional DGP Railways, appealed to the youth not to kill themselves out of fear or shame and urged them to control social media habits.

The inter-state notorious ‘Nude gang’ operating at the national level, especially in metro cities, is infamous for getting acquainted with the youth through dating apps and later blackmailing them to extort money. Recently, a young doctor from the city ended his life in the same fashion after being threatened and extorted over obscene videos.

Bhaskar Rao, ADGP Railways said, “Another 24-year-old engineer ended his life on a railway line. The note revealed he was blackmailed for sex on Instagram, I implore, plead youth not to kill themselves due to fear and shame. Please have the courage to face, you are precious, pray don’t kill yourself. Control your SM urges.”

According to the police, one of the accused gang members poses as a girl in the dating apps and starts chatting with the youth who show interest in them. Later, after establishing intimacy, the accused asks the victim to go nude before the camera. If the victim succumbs, the gang records the act and then starts extorting money. They would threaten the victims over their videos going viral on social media.

The latest victim, a 24-year-old youth, an engineering graduate lived with his family in Malleshwaram locality. The dead body of the youth was recovered on Tuesday. Though, it looked like the youth killed himself over a personal matter initially, as the investigation progressed the police investigation headed in a different direction.

Police sources said that after the verification of the mobile phone of the victim, they found threatening and blackmail messages. The investigation has also revealed that the youth was being blackmailed on Instagram also. This has made the investigation officer believe that the youth could be a victim of a ‘Nude gang’.

The Karnataka Railway Police recently arrested an accused in connection with a suicide case of a 30-year-old young doctor, who was blackmailed over his obscene videos. The doctor left a death note saying he is ending his life because of the blackmail, threatenings, and extortion by a gang led by Kranthi Singh.

The police investigating the case, have taken the accused into custody from Bhopal and launched a hunt for other members of the gang. The gang members had trapped the doctor through a dating app. After getting introduced to him and developing leniency, the victim doctor had started chatting with the accused. One of the accused spoke to him posing as a girl and asked the doctor to go nude while chatting and he obliged. Later, the doctor was blackmailed over the video, and accused persons placed demands of extortion.

The victim doctor had transferred Rs 67,000 online to the accused. He continued to get extortion and threat calls from the accused. The doctor, unable to take the pressure, killed himself by coming under a train.

According to the police, the latest is the third such case in Bengaluru. In a similar case, a youth had ended his life in Bengaluru coming under the pressure of extortion calls. The K R Puram police had arrested three persons from Rajasthan.

The police have appealed to people not to get trapped on social media platforms where miscreants pose with provocative photographs of women. “The accused somehow make the victims go nude and later blackmail them for money. People should be careful before chatting with strangers on social media platforms,” the police warned.

(With inputs from IANS)