Man held in Kerala for blackmailing and ‘sexually exploiting’ over 50 women

A 25-year-old man has been arrested in Kerala for allegedly sexually exploiting over 50 women, he had befriended over social media, by blackmailing them with their morphed obscene photos, police said Saturday.

Pradeesh Kumar from Areeparambu near Ettumanoor was arrested on Friday on the basis of a complaint by a woman, they said.

Explaining his 'modus operandi,' police said Kumar used to target women over social media and got their phone numbers.

After establishing contact with the women, mostly housewives, and understanding their family problems, he used to create fake Facebook accounts posing as female and got in touch with the husbands of his potential targets, police said.

The accused used to take screenshots of the chats their husbands had with the fake accounts and forwarded it to their wives to convince them about their spouse's "illicit relationships." After being ensured that the women had started distancing themselves from their husbands, the accused grew very close to the victims and then invited them for video chats. He then allegedly blackmailed the women with their morphed obscene pictures and sexually exploiting them, police said.

He had reportedly developed code languages to ensure that the women themselves were chatting with him on various social media platforms. If they failed to type the code before chatting, Kumar allegedly hurled expletives at them.

If the women refused to comply with his orders, the accused threatened to send their morphed obscene photographs to their husbands, police said.

Following his arrest, morphed obscene photos of many women have been recovered from the accused's laptop, they said.