Spy camera in charger: Man who blackmailed friend with private videos held in Bengaluru

The police said that after obtaining the woman’s private videos, the accused messaged her from fake social media accounts, threatening to upload the clips if she did not have a physical relationship with him.

A mobile charger with a spy camera.

A 30-year-old man who allegedly blackmailed his woman friend into having a physical relationship with him by capturing her private videos using a spy camera was arrested by Bengaluru city police, officers said Saturday.

The police identified the accused as M Mahesh, a resident of T Narasipura in Mysuru district, who is an engineering graduate and runs a food business. Mahesh, who is friends with the victim, had visited her house a month ago and stayed there for two days saying that he had come to Bengaluru for some work, officers said. He then bought a mobile charger that had a built-in spy camera which he left in her bedroom for two days during his stay, and recorded videos of the woman changing her clothes, the police added.

After Mahesh left, he sent her messages from fake social media accounts claiming to have private videos of her and demanding a physical relationship or else he would upload the videos on porn websites, investigators revealed. In her complaint, the woman alleged, “I initially ignored it, assuming it might be some prank. But after a few days, the person sent a short video of mine which took me by shock.”

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The victim soon approached the North East division of the Cyber Economic and Narcotics Crime (CEN) police station and filed a complaint. Investigators traced the IP address of the accused and nabbed him from Mysuru on August 12, officers said. After he was produced before the court, they took him in custody and during questioning it came to light that Mahesh was a friend of the victim and had placed the spy camera in her room himself, the police said.

The police have recovered the spy camera, a laptop, two memory cards, a pen drive and two mobile phones from the accused. They said Mahesh confessed that he bought the spy camera from an e-commerce portal for Rs 1,500. The police are probing whether he has harassed other women using the same modus operandi.

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