Hyderabad: Independent candidate in Nizamabad Urban ends life over online 'sextortion'

Hyderabad: An independent candidate contesting the Telangana Assembly polls from Nizamabad Urban constituency, allegedly died by suicide linked to an online sextortion attempt by cyber fraudsters, who had threatened to upload his video on social media, police said on Sunday.

The cyber fraudsters had demanded the 30-year-old to give Rs 10 lakh and threatened that they would upload a video of him recorded during a video call with a woman, along with his nomination paper on social media platforms, they said.

The fraudsters had recorded the video call he had with the woman, police said. The candidate was found hanging to the ceiling fan at his house in Nizamabad town on Saturday night by his family members, they said. He had received a message on Friday from an unknown number through an instant messaging app on his mobile number (that had a woman's profile picture), a senior police official said. After that, he started a conversation with the woman that was followed by a video call between them. Later, he received a call from another caller, who demanded Rs 10 lakh from him and threatened to put the recordings of his video call with the woman and also his nomination paper on social media if the amount was not paid.

After he refused to pay the money, the caller shared a portion of the images of the video, his nomination paper showing it being uploaded on social media apart from sending some "nude" pictures. Upset over it, he allegedly took the extreme step, the official said. Based on a complaint from the candidate's family members, a case was registered under IPC sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 384 (extortion) and further investigations were on, police added. Meanwhile, official sources said the election will not be postponed in the constituency.