Tirupathi, August 03, 2021: Andhra Pradesh police on Sunday arrested a B.Tech dropout, who allegedly lured and trapped nearly 300 women from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana into virtual or physical relationships, and later extorted money from them.
C Prasanna Kumar, 23, a resident of Proddatur town, had discontinued his bachelor’s degree in engineering and taken to crime in 2017 to support his extravagant lifestyle.
He befriended unsuspecting women through social media sites and allegedly entered into sexual relationships with dozens of them.
“Prasanna Kumar was first booked by Proddatur Two Town and Three Town police in a chain-snatching case and a case of house break-in in 2017. After being released on bail, he began luring unsuspecting women, whom he met on various social media platforms, into a sexual relationship. He would then blackmail them by threatening to circulate their intimate images and videos and extort large sums of money,” Kadapa deputy superintendent of police B Sunil Kumar said.
Initially, Kadapa police had arrested Prasanna Kumar about an alleged job fraud case and a house break-in case registered against him in June and July this year. It was during interrogation that police came to know about his blackmailing of women after sexually exploiting them.
Sunil Kumar said Prasanna had confessed to having trapped young girls and middle-aged women in sexual relationships and had extorted lakhs from them.
Kumar would trap his victims in social media platforms, lure them into a physical relationship with him and later blackmail them using images and videos of their intimate acts, the DSP said. He allegedly forced the victims to pay him hefty sums and at times and jewellery.
Around 200 young girls and 100 middle-aged women from Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Kadapa fell prey to Prasanna Kumar since 2017 but not a single victim came forward to lodge a police complaint due to the fear of being exposed according to the reports published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
Kadapa police recovered Rs 1.26 lakh cash and 30 grams of gold jewellery from the possession of the accused, and appealed to the victims to approach the police with their complaints.
“He entered into a virtual relationship with nearly 300 women and had a physical relationship with several of them,” said Sunil Kumar.
