The Juhu Police with the help of the Malvani police have arrested a 34-year-old make-up artiste for allegedly blackmailing his colleague and circulating a private video of the latter on social media. The accused, identified as Pankaj Manoj Tiwari, a resident of Malad West, was arrested on Saturday.
According to the police, the accused and the complainant, 38, were friends and worked together as make-up artistes for TV serials and films. Last month, when both were sitting together at a restaurant in the Juhu area. During that time, Tiwari reportedly got hold of the complainant’s mobile phone and began looking at photos and videos in the gallery. While doing so, he found a personal video of the complainant with his wife, which he played and recorded on his own phone.
He then started demanding money from the complainant by threatening to make the video viral. To avoid public embarrassment, the complainant transferred more than Rs 52,000 to the accused through cash and online transactions. However, the accused’s demands kept increasing day by day, leading the complainant to finally lodge a complaint at Juhu Police Station on Friday.
“The accused allegedly threatened to make the video viral on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. To prevent this, the complainant claimed he was forced to pay a ransom of Rs 52,650, both online and in cash between October 4 and 10,” said an officer from Juhu police station. An FIR was registered and the Juhu police arrested Tiwari, who has no prior criminal record, from Madh island.
