In October last year, the extortion started when the two classmates came to know about the victim’s addiction. Scared about backlash, the victim took to stealing gold ornaments from his house and handed it over to the minor accused.

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New Delhi: Addiction to online gaming took an nasty turn for a class 10 student, when two of his classmates came to know about it and started blackmailing him. They threatened to tell his parents about his addiction and the money he had lost while playing the games if he didn’t give them money. Out of fear, the boy started stealing jewellery from his house and gave it to them. The incident came to light when the boy’s mother found her jewellery missing, after which the father, a real estate businessman staying in RR Nagar, filed a police complaint. Initially, the boy feigned ignorance about it all, but later he confessed to his parents.

Four individuals were taken into custody and two minors detained by the Bengaluru police following investigation into the case. It was found that 600-700 grams of gold jewellery worth lakhs were extorted from the victim. On Wednesday, Rs 23.5 lakh in cash and the 302 gram gold was reportedly recovered from the accused by the police, a Hindustan Times report said.

The four accused have been identified as Vivek (19) from KHB Colony near Kengeri, Veman (20) from VBHCS layout in RR Nagar, Sunil (28) and Karthik (30) from Gangavati taluk of Koppal district. The two minor accused are aged about 16 years. One of the minor accused is from Koppal, and the other from Kengeri.

It was the boy who had spilled the beans about his addiction to PUBG and Dream-11 to his two classmates. After this, the duo hatched a plan to blackmail him and extort money from him. The extortion started in October 2023 when the two classmates came to know about the victim’s addiction, Rajarajeshwari Nagar police inspector Markandeya ST was quoted as saying in the report. Fearing backlash from his parents, the victim took to stealing gold jewellery from his house and gave it away to the minor accused, the police said. The jewellery was handed over by the minor accused to some persons they knew. These adults sold the jewellery. After selling them, they gave a meagre amount to the minor accused.

The police have registered a case against the accused under IPC Section 384 (extortion by threat), 504 (intentional insult), and 506 (threat to life). They were presented before the court, and were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. The two juvenile suspects were counselled and let off on station bail.