Dating App Blackmail Pushes Canteen Worker to Suicide

HYDERABAD: A 36-year-old canteen worker died by suicide after allegedly being blackmailed by cyber fraudsters who morphed his photographs and threatened to circulate them through a dating app.

Police said the victim, G. Prem Kumar, was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his house in Ambedkarnagar under Chikkadpally police station limits late on Tuesday.

Prem’s wife, Nagaveni, told police that her husband had returned from the Sammakka-Sarakka Jatra and confided that he was being harassed by fraudsters demanding ₹3,000. They allegedly threatened to send obscene morphed images and videos to his family by hacking his phone. Despite her attempts to reassure him and advise lodging a complaint, Prem panicked and ended his life.

“We broke open the window grill with the help of locals and found the victim hanging. The CLUES team was called to the spot,” said M. Mallesham, SHO, Chikkadpally.

Investigators said Prem and Nagaveni had moved to Hyderabad from Mumbai eight months ago. Nagaveni worked at a hospital canteen in Secunderabad. On Tuesday evening, she grew suspicious when Prem did not respond to the doorbell. On peeping through the window, she saw him hanging and alerted police.

Prem, a native of Narayankhed in Mahabubnagar district, had lived in Mumbai for 11 years before marrying Nagaveni in 2023. After suffering business losses, the couple shifted to Hyderabad. Family members told police he was distressed over financial problems and childlessness.

Police seized Prem’s mobile phone and said the cybercrime wing is probing the dating app angle along with financial and personal factors. After post-mortem at Gandhi Hospital, the body was handed over to relatives for last rites