A BCA student who was impersonating as a model and a lesbian woman has been arrested by Halasuru police for allegedly collecting nudes of multiple women on Instagram and blackmailing them for money and other favours.
The arrested is Prapanch Nachappa, 21, who hails from Kodagu and is a resident of Banaswadi. He is a final year BCA student in a private college in OMBR Layout in Banaswadi. His main target was students and young girls interested in modelling.
According to Halasuru police, they recently zeroed in on Nachappa while investigating a case filed by one of his victims in November 2021. Nachappa had opened multiple fake accounts on Instagram impersonating women. One of his profiles had the handle 'prathiksha_bohra_'.
It was from this handle that he sent a follow request to the victim in September last year. After the victim accepted the request, he attracted her with his communication skills and claimed to be a lesbian model. To gain her sympathy, he claimed that the neighbours have learnt that 'Prathiksha' was a lesbian and were ill-treating her, which disturbed the victim.
He also claimed to have contacts in the modelling profession and offered to help the victim become a model. Nachappa then asked her to send her nudes but the victim initially refused. After offering Rs 4,000 for each photo, Nachappa managed to get a few nudes. The victim, however, suspected something fishy and blocked his Instagram account (prathiksha_bohra_).
Nachappa subsequently opened another fake account 'Prathii_bo' and sent her messages asking for more nudes. He further threatened to send her nudes to her friends and also upload the same on social media and blackmailed her for ransom.
After thoroughly investigating the case, police nabbed Nachappa. They said that Nachappa has blackmailed around 40 young girls, most of them college students by offering a career in modelling. He has confessed to police that during the lockdown he was alone in the home and he tried his luck to make money and get other favours.
Police said that the gullible girls who were desperate to become models sent him their nude photos and videos without even verifying his identity. Nachappa used to offer Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 for each photo of the victims, a senior officer said.
A couple of victims had attempted to kill themselves while a few of them ended up paying money requesting him to not upload their photos on social media. Nachappa had used only a mobile phone in the crime, which has been seized and sent to the laboratory for a detailed investigation. He has been remanded to judicial custody and is lodged at Central Prison in Parappana Agrahara.
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