Retired JJ school principal trapped and blackmailed over video call

The woman made a nude video call to the complainant on November 12. Representation pic

A 77-year-old art blogger and retired principal of Sir JJ School of Art has filed a complaint at Khar police station, alleging that a woman has been threatening to post and share online an obscene video of their WhatsApp call.

The complainant lives with his family in the jurisdiction of Khar police station and filed the complaint on Friday.

According to a police source, he writes art blogs on Facebook, and receives many friend requests from his former students as well as fans. He had accepted some of them recently, and on November 10, as he left for Goa on a family vacation, a woman messaged him on Facebook.

She introduced herself as one Mansi Patil and requested him to share his phone number, which he refused to do, the sources said. A day later, she messaged him her mobile number and again requested him to share his. He finally did and when he returned from his vacation on November 12, he received a WhatsApp video call from the woman. He disconnected it and did not answer any of her other calls.

The man told the police that one night he answered the woman's call, and saw that she was topless, and immediately disconnected the call. The next day, she messaged him, asking to recharge her SIM card for Rs 249, but he refused and told her that he didn't know how to. The woman then asked him to send the money to her friend's account, which he did.

On Friday, the woman sent a message to the complainant, asking whether she should delete the video call between the two or send it to his family, relatives and friends, or post it online. The man realised that he was being blackmailed and immediately approached the police.

When this reporter contacted the complainant, he refused to talk and disconnected the call.

A police officer said they have registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating) and 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the IPC, and various Sections of the Information Technology Act, including Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form).

19 Nov
Day the retired principal received first call