By : Pramesh Jain
Input Chief of Regional TV Channel Hemanth Kashyap Arrested in Extortion Case by Sadashivanagar police .
“Bengaluru city police appeals to public to come forward and even requested the public to come forward and file a complaint if the accused has blackmailed them.”
The Sadashivanagar police,which had arrested the input chief of a regional news channel, have produced him before the court and the court has remanded him into custody for four days.
The Sadashivanagar police on Tuesday have arrested a input chief of reputed Kannada News Channel on charges of blackmailing and threatening a Padmashree awardee Doctor Raman Rao.
The accused has been identified as Hemanth Kashyap who is working with reputed Kannada News Channel and has even worked in reputed English Newspaper and Channel too.
Hemanth Kashyap, a resident of Sahakaranagar,was working with Public TV for three years.He allegedly blackmailed Dr Ramana Rao (68), a resident of RMV Extension,demanding Rs 50 lakh.
A journalist from another News channel was also blackmailing the doctor over the same clip.Initially, the doctor reportedly paid Kashyap Rs.5 lakh in three instalments, but later lodged a complaint with the police when he started demanding Rs.50 lakh for his silence.
According to the police, Kashyap then allegedly demanded more money from Rao, and the latter asked him to help him get rid of Manjunath.Kashyap said he would come again.Meanwhile,Rao approached Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara,who called and directed the Sadashivanagar police inspector to take up the case and arrest the media persons involved in it.Based on instructions by senior officers A team of police officers in plainclothes then caught Kashyap red-handed they said.
Kashyap,Manjunath and Murali have reportedly been dismissed from their respective companies and they have been even dismissed from Reporters guild of Bangalore Press Club .
When the doctor approached the police on Tuesday, they asked him to call Kashyap to his nursing home to hand over Rs.50 lakh.The police laid a trap and nabbed Kashyap when he came to collect the money.
Hemanth Kashyap has also threatened the police of action against them for arresting him.
H.R.Ranganath, Editor, Public TV, issued a video statement on Wednesday informing the network’s audience that the employee in question had been dismissed from work and that the channel would cooperate with the probe.
Senior officer told media persons that a Padmashree awardee Dr.Raman Rao has visited Sadashivanagar Police station and registered a complaint against the accused stating that he is being blackmailed by one Hemanth Kashyap and Manjunath who introduced themselves as Journalist he called on my Whatsapp call on March 5th and asked me to meet in personnel so I told him to come to my Nursing Home only then on March 5th the said accused Hemanth Kashyap visited my nursing home and he blackmailed me by telling that he has got some Private Videos of him and he threatened him to get telecasted his private video in all the reputed news channel and make it viral he even said that many other news channel reporter have got his private videos I can’t give guarantee if they telecast so on the next day one by Manjunath who introduced himself as reporter of Samaya News Channel and even he blackmailed to telecast so I immediately called to Hemanth Kashyap and asked him to come and collect the money on the same day he visited the doctors nursing home and firstly he collected 2 lakhs and then again 2 lakhs and lastly 1 Lakh totally he has paid Rs.5 lakhs to them so now again he has called me and blackmailed and threatened again to telecast the private video a Sex Scandal video on all news channel so firstly the doctor immediately visited the Sadashivanagar police station and explained all the thing to inspector of Sadashivanagar Police station about how he has given him Rs.5 lakhs and again they are blackmailing and demanding Rs.50 lakhs so the inspector registered a complaint and informed his seniors about the same the DCP Central,Division Devaraj instructed the inspector to form a special team and nab the criminals based on complaint our team headed by ACP,Niranjan Raje Urs and PI,Sadashivanagar and his cops swung into action and laid a trap and then we asked the doctor to call and tell the accused to come to his nursing home and collect the cash as the cash is ready the doctor followed the instructions of our officers and asked the reporter to come to his nursing home and as on Tuesday at around 6.30 pm the accused came to collect the cash at the same time the cops who were in plain clothes has detained the accused red handedly while accepting bribe during the course of investigation it is revealed that a journalist from another channel was also blackmailing the doctor over the same clip.Initially, the doctor reportedly paid Kashyap Rs.5 lakh in three instalments,During interrogation Kashyap confessed the crime and told the investigation officer that many journalists are aware of the clip and wanted to be paid.Hence, he decided to make the extortion demand.We are verifying his claims,We are also on the lookout for the other journalist,Manjunath, an associate of Kashyap who works as a reporter with the news channel Samaya TV, as they suspect that he too was part of the blackmail and extortion racket.We suspect that many others are involved in the racket.We have got“solid evidence” in the form of CCTV camera footage obtained from Dr. Rao’s clinic at Sadashivanagar, which allegedly shows the journalist receiving money on various days.We have four clips of the accused collecting money from the doctor.The latest one was as recent as Tuesday evening when he was caught.And the Sadashivanagar police have registered a case against the accused under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), and 384 (extortion), 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.The Sadashivanagar police, which had arrested the input chief of a regional news channel, have produced him before the court and taken him into custody for four days,and a massive manhunt is on for the absconding accused identified as Bonkere Manjunath and Cameraman Murali and we have confiscated Hemanth Kashyap’s mobile phone and has been sent to the Cyber Crime cell of the CID, for a detailed analysis.The journalist is suspected to be involved in similar offences in the past.A detailed call details record analysis will reveal the nature of his activities and we request the public to come forward and file a complaint if the accused has blackmailed them he added.
