Mumbai Crime: Man hacks model's Instagram account to extort cash

Arisha Jain. Pic/Instagram

The Versova police arrested a man from Vishakhapatnam on Tuesday for allegedly hacking the social media accounts of a former beauty pageant finalist to extort Rs 1 lakh from her. The accused identified as Chandraprakash Joshi was interrogated in Vishakhapatnam and then brought back to Mumbai.

The complainant Arisha Jain who was Miss India 2011 finalist told the police that she received an email on November 15 informing that her Instagram account would be deleted within 24 hours and to click on a link in the mail if she does not want it to be deactivated.

A police official told Hindustan Times, "She clicked on the link, but nothing happened. She then tried to open her Instagram account, which was blocked. She then tried to access her Facebook and Snapchat accounts that were also blocked, which is when she realised her accounts had been hacked."

The next day she allegedly received a Whatsapp message from Joshi, demanding one lakh rupees if she wanted her social media accounts back. Jain then approached police who told her to keep talking on WhatsApp to buy more time. She even sent him few links to click but he did not click on it. Joshi was then traced through his account details and nabbed.

An FIR under sections 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act was registered by the Versova police.

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