Cyberabad police prevent nudes of 12-year-old US girl from leaking online, nabs culprit in 4 hours

Acting swiftly on the complaint filed by parents of a 12-year-old girl staying in California in the United States, an engineering student of Telangana was arrested by the Cybercrime police. The accused was charged with blackmailing and collecting victim’s nude photographs and videos via a social networking site.

As per police, accused was identified as Devanpally Sandeep Rao (27) of Nizamabad area became friends with a minor living in California through Instagram in March 2020. He interacted with her and slowly started influencing her. The accused allegedly convinced the girl to share her nude photographs and had made a collection of it.

The victim later blocked him after he kept requesting her to send some more nude pictures. The accused then started blackmailing her by threatening to upload her obscene pictures and videos on social media.

The official said that the accused also shared some photographs with her friend and forced the victim to talk to him and threatened that he has more nude photos and videos to share. As the situation became unbearable, she informed her parents, who lodged a complaint with the police.

“When the girl stopped chatting with him, Rao contacted a friend of the girl staying in California and threatened the victim through her. When the victim started chatting with him again, Rao asked her to share more pictures and videos,” said V Syam Babu, ACP (Cybercrime), Cyberabad.

Based on a complaint made by the victim’s parents via email, the police apprehended Rao within four hours and produced him before the court. Police said he had used a similar modus operandi and collected money from other victims and their parents too. The police made the arrest within four hours after the girl’s parents lodged a complaint.

The police registered a case against the accused under Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 13 r/w 14 (1) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and took up the investigation.

Quick Tip:

• Not to accept friend requests on Facebook, Instagram etc from unknown people.
• Not to share their personal photographs or videos with anyone on the internet.
• Immediately inform police if someone is trying to blackmail you on the internet.