Tamil Nadu man posing as singer Armaan Malik makes lakhs via social media by extorting money from women, gets arrested

A 30-year old man was arrested Wednesday here on the charge of befriending and blackmailing several women on the social media by posing as famous Bollywood singer Armaan Malik, police said.

Mahendra Varman, hailing from Ulundurpet in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, had established friendship with several women on Facebook and WhatApp in the name of Malik.

He managed to receive obscene photographs from some of the women and threatened that he would post them on social media if they did not give money. He had allegedly collected lakhs of rupees over a period of time, police said.

Based on complaint from a woman here, the District Crime Branch police laid a trap and made him to come to a certain place to receive the money. He was arrested while talking with the woman, police added.

He has been booked under sections 354 B (use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe) 354 C (punishment for voyeurism), 384 (punishment for extortion), 506 (i) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 66E (punishment for violation of privacy), 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the IT Act; he was then lodged in Coimbatore Central Prison. His mobile phone and electronic tablet have been seized and sent to the lab for an examination.

The man had completed teacher training course and till two years ago had been conducting training classes, a police official told Indian Express. After he quit that job, he tried to make money through easy means and this was what he chose, the official added.