VIJAYAPURA: A couple hailing from a village in Channarayapatna taluk in Hassan has been arrested for cheating and blackmailing a young man to the tune of Rs 40 lakh after befriending him on social media. They had purchased 100 gm of gold, a Hyundai car, a motorcycle with the money and had even taken up construction of a multi-storeyed house with the money.
Parameshwar Hipparagi, who hails from Bagalur village in Sindagi taluk and is working in Telangana, befriended Manjula, who hails from Dasarahalli village in Channarayapatna taluk on Facebook. Initially, on the pretext of her mother’s illness, she took Rs 10,000 from him. She had also told him that she was preparing for the UPSC examinations.
Manjula even got Parameshwar share nude videos of himself and later used that to blackmail him. Over a period of time, Parameshwar had coughed up Rs 40 and when he realised that he had been duped, he lodged a complaint with the CEN police.
Vijayapura Superintendent of Police Anand Kumar said a police team arrested Manjula from her native village. Interestingly, during investigation, the police found that her husband Swamy was the mastermind in the entire episode. Both have been remanded to judicial custody, he added.