Facebook friend turned extortionist; held

A 30-year-old woman faced the brunt due to social media after her Facebook 'friend' blackmailed and threatened her to break her marriage if she failed to deposit money in his bank account on timely basis. The RAK Marg police laid a trap for the accused and nabbed him from Sewree and found 53 private pictures of the victim in the cellphone of the accused.

The friend would threaten the victim of sharing the pictures with her husband and relatives and would break her marriage if she does not pay the money.

The RAK Marg police have arrested the accused Shehzad Khan.

According to the police, the accused allegedly befriended the woman on Facebook who is married and started chatting with her. The police said, after chatting for few days the accused and the victim shared mobile numbers and started talking over the phone. The accused then proposed her and after gaining her respect asked her to send her private photos which she shared thinking him as a genuine person. "As the accused received the photos he started blackmailing the victim for money using her photos and would threaten her to post it on social media. He would also threaten the victim to share it with her relatives and husband and would harass her to talk with him for hours,' said a police officer,

"As the woman was fed up off the accused's demands, on Friday she agreed to pay him the money. The accused then called the woman near Sewree court to pay the money. The woman then narrated the incident to us and we laid the trap for him near the court and nabbed him," said a police officer,

"We have arrested the accused and have booked him under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and Information Technology act," said Bhagwat Bansode, Senior Police Inspector of RAK Marg police station.