K'taka minister blackmailed for Rs 1cr over son's video; 1 held

Bengaluru, Jan 10 (IANS) Karnataka police on Sunday arrested the son of an astrologer in connection with the case of blackmailing a state cabinet minister over the "private video" of his son and demanding an extortion amount of Rs 1 crore.

The arrested individual has been identified as Rahul Bhat.

According to CCB police who are investigating the case, the accused had sent a video to the cellphone of Minister for Cooperation, S.T. Somashekar in the last week of December 2021.

The video contained footage of his son. The accused demanded Rs 1 crore ransom from the minister to stay quiet.

Minister Somashekar had referred the case to the police department and his son Nishanth had lodged a complaint in this regard.

The police after investigations arrested Rahul Bhat and took him into their custody for five days after presenting him before the court.

The investigations revealed that the video had been sent from the mobile number of the daughter of Indi constituency Congress MLA Yashwanth Rao Patil.

MLA Patil has told the police that his daughter is presently in the US and while she left the country, she had given a SIM card to one of her friends.

The police now have got details of her friend and launched a hunt for him. Further investigation is on.