Bengaluru: Two persons have been arrested for demanding a ransom of Rs 2 crore from a businessman-politician, claiming that they have his sex videos. The arrested are identified as Ajay Pavenahalli and Abhi, both from Davanagere and in their 20s.
The 68-year-old businessman-politician, who had contested the 2018 Karnataka legislative assembly elections from a constituency in Ballari district as an independent candidate, filed a complaint with Koramangala police last month. According to him, on Feb 27, Ajay called him when he was in Davanagere and asked to meet with him. Ajay and Abhi met the complainant at a hotel near Davanagere court the same day. The duo claimed that they had his sex videos and demanded a ransom to not leak them online or to TV news channels.
On March 14, they sent him a few sex videos, which had a man resembling the complainant. However, the businessman said after seeing them, he realised they were morphed but the sender deleted the videos before he could clearly examine them.
The next day, Abhi made a WhatsApp call to the complainant, who asked him to bring the videos to Bengaluru and take the money. On March 16, Abhi said he could not come to Bengaluru and would be sending Ajay on March 17.
Speaking to TOI, the complainant said, “I wanted Ajay to come to Bengaluru so that I could complain to the police and catch him red-handed.” Ajay came to Bengaluru and demanded Rs 2 crore to delete all videos. The complainant borrowed some time and returned home. Abhi called him and continued to blackmail. When the complainant told him he could not pay so much money, the blackmailers scaled down their demand to Rs 40 lakh.
“I didn’t want to pay the money as I was sure I was not in the video and I have never been involved in such acts. So I lodged a complaint with the police, and they arrested both Ajay and Abhi,” he said.
A senior police officer said, “It appears that the blackmailers managed to lay their hands on a video in which a man resembled the complainant and tried to extort money from him. The former driver of the complainant is also one of the suspects in the case. He has gone incommunicado, and we are making efforts to nab him.”