New Delhi, September 20
Police have arrested a Mumbai businessman for allegedly blackmailing sitar player Anoushka Shankar, daughter of legendary musician Pandit Ravi Shankar.
The accused, Junaid (29), allegedly used some of Anoushka's photographs to blackmail her after hacking into her e-mail account, police said today.
The arrest comes after investigations into a complaint by Ravi Shankar to Delhi police last month alleging that his 28-year-old daughter was being blackmailed by someone.
Junaid was caught in Mumbai on Wednesday last by the Special Cell of Delhi police after they allegedly found that he was involved in the case, a senior police official said. He has been remanded in judicial custody for 14 days after he was produced in a Delhi court. Official sources said Junaid appeared to have known Anoushka and that he was nursing a grudge against her after the fallout in their friendship.
A senior official said Junaid allegedly hacked into the inbox of Anoushka's e-mail and accessed her photographs. The man allegedly sent at least six e-mails to her demanding money for not making the photographs public. He had even demanded USD one lakh in one e-mail, the official claimed.
A spokesperson for Anoushka said she was not willing to comment as of now as investigation into the case was on.
In his complaint, Ravi Shankar, who lives in the US, is learnt to have told the police that Anoushka had given her laptop to a service centre in south Delhi in February.
Initially, the official said, police thought that the photographs were accessed when it was being repaired by the service centre.
"We think that the material in the laptop was copied by someone. We interrogated the staff at the Apple Services Centre. Later, we zeroed in on the Mumbai-based man and arrested him," a senior police official had said.
Police had last week registered a case under Section 386 of Indian Penal Code which relates to extortion by putting in fear of death or hurt and provides for a maximum punishment of 10 years in jail. Some provisions of the IT act will also be invoked against the suspect.
— PTI
