Two more FIRs against man who had extorted TV actress earlier

Siddharth Sarvoday

The police have registered two more FIRs against Siddharth Sarvoday, 29, who had recently been arrested for blackmailing a TV actress to extort money from her. They were lodged by two other women who were also allegedly targeted by Sarvoday.

Sarvoday would introduce himself as a casting director on social media and contact actresses and models. After getting access to their profile pictures, he would morph them and then blackmail the victims. The crime came to light after the accused threatened a TV actress and then demanded Rs 1 lakh from her. She registered a complaint with the Versova police station. mid-day had reported this on April 24 (Cops nab man in Bandra for blackmailing actresses, models with morphed photos).

A police officer said, "During interrogation Sarvoday revealed that he had done the same with six more girls. We then contacted these girls, one of whom stays in the jurisdiction of Navghar police station and the other who stays in Vishnunagar police station's jurisdiction. They came and gave us detailed information."

Sarvoday is a Std X drop out and was arrested in 2017 for allegedly making a hoax call about a railway station being blown up, after which he was lodged in Arthur Road Jail. Police said when he was let out he began blackmailing women this way to earn money. The accused is not well educated but is well-versed with technology, as he used to keep changing his location and switching off his cellphone in order to avoid arrest and misguide the investigating team.

Minor morphs pictures

On Thursday the Ghatkopar police met a minor boy with his parents, as he had allegedly morphed a minor girl's pictures. A police officer said, "Last week we received a complaint from a victim who is a minor, that someone befriended her on Facebook and then morphed her pictures. He later started demanding obscene images."

The police registered an FIR against an unknown person under sections 354(d), 506, 509 of IPC and 12 of POCSO, and 66 (c), 67, 67(b) of the Information Technology Act. After that PI Vilas Datar formed a team of API Deep Bane, PSI Santosh Jadhav, PSI Mohan Jagdale for the case. The accused had mentioned his location in Nepal. The police found he stays in Khar danda but is a minor. They asked his parents to bring him to the police station.

"We got evidence from his mobile on Facebook. There were some morphed images of the victim and her brother (a minor). As per the Child Welfare Committee (Juvenile Justice) Law, after a medical test of the minor accused, we handed him over to his parents," said the officer.

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