Pune police have arrested two men from Bihar in an interstate cyber-blackmail case linked to the suicide of a 22-year-old man in Kharadi, after investigators alleged that the victim was threatened with a fabricated drug case and extorted through an online video scam.
The accused have been identified as Akashkumar Sanjay Singh, aged 18 years and two months, from Gopalganj district, and Rajkumar Sampurna Anand Singh, aged 22, from Banka district in Bihar. A court has remanded both men to police custody until October 30, according to Kharadi police.
Police said the victim, Shikhar Saxena, jumped from the 27th floor of Riverdale Suite Society in the Kharadi area on October 1. His father filed a complaint on October 14, following which Kharadi police registered a case over alleged blackmail, extortion and abetment of suicide.
According to the police account reported by Sakal, the accused contacted Saxena by posing as a person named Ajaykumar Bhatia. They allegedly threatened to implicate him in a false drug offence. Investigators said the accused had created fake Instagram accounts using women’s names and used them to contact Saxena before persuading him to move the conversation to Telegram.
Police alleged that during a video call, the accused displayed an objectionable video of a woman and recorded the interaction. They then allegedly threatened to circulate the recording and to involve Saxena in a fabricated drug case. Investigators said ₹1.77 lakh was transferred to five bank accounts as a result of the alleged extortion.
The case illustrates how online fraud operations can combine identity deception, intimate-image blackmail, threats of criminal prosecution and multiple bank accounts. In this instance, the investigation moved across state lines after the digital trail pointed to suspects in Bihar and financial accounts connected to other locations.
The police team conducted technical analysis of the digital communications and examined the money trail with assistance from the cybercrime unit. Investigators have frozen ₹1.14 lakh from the five bank accounts, police said. Seven devices, including mobile phones, a laptop and a tablet, valued at approximately ₹2.25 lakh, were seized from the arrested suspects.
Police are also searching for alleged accomplices identified as Aniket Gupta of Ludhiana, Punjab, and Krish Kumar of Arunachal Pradesh, who is suspected of being the account holder who received the extortion money. Their roles and the wider structure of the alleged operation remain part of the investigation.
The operation was carried out under the supervision of Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar and senior officers, with teams led by Kharadi senior police inspector Sanjay Chavan and assistant inspector Ravindra Godse. The police said citizens should not panic or transfer money after receiving suspicious video calls, objectionable clips or threats of being implicated in a crime.
People facing such blackmail are advised to approach the nearest police station or report the matter through the national cybercrime helpline 1930. The court’s custody order and the continuing search for the alleged accomplices are the next formal steps in the investigation.
