Actress arrested for blackmailing businessman

Actress arrested for blackmailing businessman

A model-turned-actress, who attempted to blackmail a businessman after taking videos of them in a compromising position at a star hotel in Meenambakkam was arrested. According to the police, the actress, identified as Padma Narayanan, demanded Rs. 10 crore after spending a night with the businessman for an agreed sum of Rs 25,000, failing which she threatened to make the videos of the two of them public. Padma, aged 29, a resident of Velachery, acted in Tamil movie Veeraswamy. According to eye witnesses, she was arrested at a jewellery shop in Cathedral road on Wednesday afternoon and bundled into a police vehicle. She had arrived at the jewellery store to meet her victim, a businessman named Pradeep K. from Anna Nagar.

The actress was waiting for the businessman at the jewellery shop because he told her she could buy whatever she wanted from the store. “We told the businessman to set a trap for her. She was told that it would be difficult for Pradeep to give her Rs. 10 crore in cash, so she was asked to make some purchases from the jewellery shop,” the police said. A police team headed by an assistant commissioner from St Thomas Mount waited at the shop with policewomen in mufti. As soon as the actress arrived in her Honda City car and entered the shop, the police team picked her up.

According to sources, the police team questioned her in the vehicle and by evening she confessed to the crime and even provided the police with details of her three associates who also threatened the businessman. They were identified as Sanjay, a 29 year-old model, Ameer John, 28, and Chandran, 28, both car brokers. The police also seized a Honda City car, a lap top, 7 mobile phones and a gun from the arrested. On Thursday morning, the police didn’t want to wait for the courts to open, and rushed the case by producing her at the residence of a magistrate — something that is usually done only in VIP and emergency cases. The magistrate remanded her to judicial custody for 15 days.

Padma’s Modus Operandi

The businessman and actress travelled by the same car and checked into a room at the hotel on July 27. After entering the hotel room, she told him she had left her walkman in the car and asked him to fetch it. When he went out, she arranged four cellphones at four corners of the bed and started the recording option. When he returned, the four cell phone cameras capture0all the bedroom activity from four angles. Later, she kept the mobile phones back in her handbag without him noticing. The two agreed to meet next day also in the same hotel.

But the next day, she came with three of her associates and showed him the video recordings of previous night. The recording was played on a lap top and the four demanded Rs. 10 crore from him or they threatened to ruin his reputation in public. The businessman offered to pay Rs. 10 lakh, but the gang insisted that he should pay Rs. 10 crore or they would shoot him. This is when he approached the police and set a trap for the actress. Sources said that the businessman has been involved with the actress for the last six months.