The cybercrime branch of the Karnataka Police on Tuesday, February 29, 2018, arrested a 36-year-old man who blackmailed women into recording their video on the pretext of interviewing them for an international airline.
The accused, who has been identified as Deepuraj alias Rakesh Nair, alias Dr Harikrishnan, alias Rakesh Sharma, alias Dr Rajesh Panikar, is a resident of Thoppinagar in Thiruvananthapuram. He worked as a hotel manager at Hotel Aroma Classic Days and was arrested following a complaint by a Chennai-based victim Namya Baid.
Namya’s story
In January, Deepuraj attempted to sexually harass Chennai-based woman Namya Baid on the pretext of offering her a job at an international airline. According to a report by The News Minute, Deepuraj, who went by the name Deepak, pretended to be client-relationship manager with Air France and offered a job to Namya as a French expert without an interview.
In the days following the first call, Namya got another call from the same number for the second round of the interview. For the third round, he called her from a different number pretending to be a doctor and asked her to show him her ‘full profile’. He also asked her to change into a body-hugging t-shirt without her inner wear.
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When Namya realised what was happening, she threatened to expose him. Soon after, she posted their entire WhatsApp conversation on Facebook to expose him. Check out her post here:
How Deepuraj worked?
As it turns out, Namya is not the only victim. Reports suggest that the accused has harassed several women in the past.
Deepuraj would browse through job portals to access the details of women who aspired to work for international airlines. He would then reach out to the aspirants posing as HR manager etc informing them that they had been shortlisted for a five-round interview which included two rounds of video-based physical examination, The Times of India reported.
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During the video call, he would coerce women into posing in various angles and have a sex-chat with him. He would later threaten to upload their videos online if they refused.
Namya, who first exposed his scam, is now glad that the accused has been arrested and that he won’t be able to harm anyone now. Here’s what she wrote in her Facebook post:
