The Mangaluru Police on Tuesday, June 9, arrested a Youth Congress office-bearer along with his associate for allegedly blackmailing a businessman in the city and extorting ₹2.77 crore from him over a period of nearly two years.
Police has identified the accused as Nizam, said to be the General Secretary of the Mangaluru Youth Congress, and his associate Jitesh, IANS reported.
To target the businessman, the accused are believed to have used private obscene photographs and videos to blackmail him. At first, Jitesh came into with the victim in 2024. After trapping him, he threatened the person to expose the private content to his wife.
Initially, he asked for ₹35 lakh, while the victim paid the amount through cheque out of fear.
However, this did not stop here and the accused made further demands from him. Post that, the victim is believed to have approached Nizam to seek assistance. Nizam instead joined hands with Jitesh and became part of the extortion network, police said.
The accused later came up with a fabricated suicide narrative to further pressurise the victim. Police officials said that Nizam told the businessman in May 2024 that Jitesh died by suicide and they have recovered a note that blames the victim. To make it appear credible, they even circulated images that purportedly showed Jitesh’s death and funeral rites. Nizam then threatened to implicate the businessman in a criminal case.
Fearing legal trouble, the businessman allegedly continued to pay money to the accused, with the total amount extorted from him reaching ₹2.77 crore between 2024 and 2026.
The case took a major turn when the businessman spotted Jitesh alive in Mangaluru earlier this month. He got shocked to find out that the person he believed to be dead was still alive.
Soon after, the victim approached the Urva Police Station and filed a complaint against the two persons.
Based on the complaint, police arrested Nizam and Jitesh. They have launched further investigation in the matter to verify the full extent of the alleged extortion racket.