Four held for trying to blackmail woman in Belagavi

Belagavi police have arrested four persons, including a clerk in a government office and three others claiming to be journalists, on charges of recording questionable videos of a woman and trying to blackmail her.

T. Vinod, a government employee, and three YouTubers, Abdul Rashid Makandar, Mohammad Balekundri, and Sameer Nisar Ahmed, were arrested for trying to blackmail a female government employee. They had gained access to her house and had installed tiny cameras in the bulb holders, and went on to blackmail her with the videos they had obtained.

Based on a complaint, a team arrested them while they were caught accepting some money. Allegedly, Vinod harboured a grudge against the woman and some other employees in the office. He then approached the fake journalists with the proposal to blackmail the woman, police said.

A case has been registered.