A man from Tirunelveli extorted money from as many as 350 men using his ability to speak in a woman’s voice to lure men into sex chats and extorted money from them. The accused had been targeting men since 2017. He was arrested on Sunday after one of his victims approached the police and lodged a complaint.

The accused was identified as Vallal Rajkumar Reegan. A 27-year-old engineering student, the accused is a native of Panakudi, Tirunelveli. The accused mainly targeted men who downloaded an app named Locanto.

Reegan’s modus operandi came to light when a victim P Udhayaraj contacted the Mylapore police and claimed that he had been conned by a woman. The complainant told the police that a woman named Priya had been threatening him for money.

On February 16, Udhayaraj was on the internet, looking for jobs. Udhyaraj said that while he was searching for jobs, an advertisement asking him to download Locanto app popped up on the screen. As per the pop-up, Locanto was an app that offered sexual services. Udhyaraj clicked on the pop-up and downloaded the app.

After the download was complete, Udhayaraj began chatting on the app and received a phone call from a woman. The caller introduced herself at Priya and offered to provide sexual favours. Udhayaraj then received an SMS on his phone, asking him to pay Rs 100 from an online gateway.

After sending the money, Udhayaraj received a nude picture of a woman. Following this, the woman asked Udhayaraj to transfer Rs 1,500 for a suggestive video. Udhayaraj, however, refused to pay the money and blocked the number.

Within moments, Udhayaraj received a message on his phone, stating that a woman had filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. Soon after, Udhayaraj started receiving calls from different numbers. Following this, Udhayaraj blocked the numbers and approached the police.

Udhayaraj submitted a list of the numbers he had blocked to the police and an investigation was launched into the case, The Times of India reported. The police tracked the accused using the mobile numbers and identified him. Reegan was arrested soon after the police tracked him and began the interrogation.

When he was being questioned, Reegan said that he used fake complaints to threaten people who downloaded the Locanto app. Reegan told the cops that he had conned around 350 people using his fake voice and has lodged over 150 fake sexual harassment complaints at local police stations.

After he confessed to committing the crime, the police booked the accused under Section 384 (punishment for extortion), Section 506 (i) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the IT Act