19-yr-old girl, boyfriend kill driver blackmailing her with intimate video

Mumbai: A 19-year-old girl and her 21-year-old boyfriend have been arrested for the alleged murder of a 43-year-old man, who allegedly blackmailed the girl using intimate videos, officials said.

The deceased, Surendra Asaram Pandey, was found dead in a decomposed state inside his locked apartment after the duo confessed to the crime at a police station.

According to police, Pandey, originally from Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, was living alone. A few weeks ago, he befriended the accused girl identified as Riya Dinesh Sarkanyasingh, who had moved from Punjab in search of employment. Offering to help her, Pandey allowed her to stay at his residence.

On April 2, Riya invited her boyfriend, Vishal Sanjay Shinde, from Sangamner to stay with her at Pandey’s house. “According to the girl, the deceased had shot some intimate videos of both the accused and used those videos to demand sexual favours from her, threatening to leak the footage online,” a police officer from Ulwe police station said.

During a confrontation that escalated into a violent altercation, Sarkanyasingh and Shinde allegedly attacked Pandey with a hammer, killing him. They then wrapped his body in a bedsheet, locked the house from the outside, and fled in Pandey’s WagonR car.

Later, the boy informed their parents about the incident. The duo then surrendered before the police and confessed their crime.