PANAJI
The Crime Branch (CB) on Wednesday arrested an Odisha native on charges of allegedly extorting money from a sitting legislator and indulging in cybercrime.
The accused, identified as Kukesh Rauta, 34, was tracked down during an investigation based on a complaint filed by the victim MLA on December 2. The accused, known to the MLA, not only morphed the latter’s identity for vulgar content but also extorted Rs 55,000 out of Rs 5 core demanded to not leak the video on social media platforms.
CB SP Rahul Gupta stated that Rauta contacted the complainant via video call, secretly recorded his video and morphed the footage to create sexually explicit material containing the MLA’s identity. The accused then sent this morphed video to the MLA’s mobile phone and threatened to share it on various social media platforms unless Rs 5 crore was paid.
In his complaint to the CB, the MLA conceded transferring Rs 55,000 to Rauta’s bank account under pressure but the accused kept demanding Rs 5 crore. “He threatened to ruin the MLA’s reputation by uploading the video on social media platforms,” the officer said, quoting the complaint.
With Rauta’s arrest two days after the incident came to the fore, the CB stated that the accused confessed to extorting Rs 5 crore. He is currently in police custody and being probed for the offense under Sections 384 (extortion) IPC and Sections 66-C (identity theft), 67 (transmitting obscene material), and 67-A (publishing obscene material) of the IT Act, 2008.
