Soumitra Nandi
Kolkata: An ex  student of the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode was arrested from Chennai by the cyber crime police station in Bidhannagar, Kolkata  on charges of extorting money from a girl by blackmailing her through posting derogatory mails and messages about her. 

“The accused was forcing the complainant to marry him and even threatened to kill her. He would send derogatory mails and messages to the complainant, parents and other relatives of the complainant. He would also send such mails to the colleagues of the complainant’s parents in a bid to malign her reputation in a bid to extort money. He had extorted Rs 5 lakhs from the parents of the complainant,” said Kankar Prasad Barui, DC DD of Bidhannagar city police.

According to police sources, the accused Shivanand Mohan, a resident of Lake View Road under Ashoknagar police station in Chennai became friends with the girl from Dum Dum Park in Kolkata while studying management at IIM in Kozhikode. The accused was a year senior to the complainant during her term of study at Kozhikode in the academic year 2013-15. 

For the last few months, Mohan would post abusive mails and messages through whatsapp and other websites and would circulate them to different persons connected with the complainant and also in the institution where she had studied. Situation was such that the complainant’s parents even paid Rs 5 lakhs that Mohan had demanded for stopping such posts.  “He had promised to stop sending such mails after we paid him the money. But he again started demanding money.

Finally on April 29th, we lodged complaint with the cyber crime police station in Chennai mails,” said a relative of the girl who did not wish to be named. 

A three member team from the cyber crime police station led by Mani Shankar Roy left for Chennai on 15th May. But they could not find the accused at the address that they had come across in course of investigation. “We travelled to Kerala, and Tamilnadu in search of the accused but finally tracked him down from his residence at Chennai on 21st May. He was brought in Kolkata on transit remand and was produced at the Bidhannagar Court on Sunday which granted 10 days police custody of the accused,” said an investigating officer.  

The sleuths recovered two laptops, one mobile phone which were used in connection with this act. 

“The accused was working with a leading software company in Chennai after completing his management course. We have to check out what actually prompted him to act in such a way,” said a senior police official.