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The Instagram logo is displayed on a smartphone on December 20, 2012 in Paris. Instagram backed down on December 18, 2012 from a planned policy change that appeared to clear the way for the mobile photo sharing service to sell pictures without compensation, after users cried foul. Changes to the Instagram privacy policy and terms of service set to take effect January 16 had included wording that appeared to allow people's pictures to be used by advertisers at Instagram or Facebook worldwide, royalty-free.LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images [Representational Image]

A post-graduate student of Bangalore University was arrested by the city police for extorting money from a 17-year-old teenager after blackmailing with nude photos of him and his girlfriend.

The accused, a 21-year-old doing his masters in the university had allegedly extorted Rs 6.4 lakhs from the teenager. The accused had used the social media app Instagram for his devious motives.

The accused tricked the teenager and his Instagram girlfriend into sharing their personal photos. After seeing that both the victims were commenting on each other's photos for a while, the young criminal created fake accounts of both victims with their names.

He started chatting with the teenagers from the impersonated accounts without even giving them a slight doubt and somehow achieved in acquiring their nude images.

After the victims gave him their photos he started to extort them by demanding a sum of Rs 10 lakh and blackmailed them of publishing the images online if his demands weren't met. The accused student contacted him first in December 2018 from another fake account.

Panicked by the blackmail, the teenager started to steal valuables and money from his house, to give it to the blackmailer. "In the first instalment, he paid Rs 50,000 at a bus stop in Marathahalli. In February, he paid Rs 1.5 lakh at the same place followed by Rs 36,000 and six pieces of silver", reports TOI.

But this did not stop the accused from the extortion, rather he demanded more and the victim was forced to pay Rs 4 lakhs and 11 silver pieces, adds the report.

The incident came into light after the victim's father noticed that jewellery and cash had gone missing from the house. At first, he suspected their daughter-in-law but later the victim confessed the whole story.

However, the accused was arrested by the police after the family lodged a complaint against him.