Bengaluru teacher arrested for extorting money from student's father after affair

The Central Crime Branch has arrested Sridevi Rudagi for extortion and blackmailing.

A 25-year-old Bengaluru teacher was arrested on charges of blackmail and extorting money from a student's parent with whom she was reportedly having an affair.

The Central Crime Branch arrested Sridevi Rudagi and two others - Ganesh Kale, 38, and Sagar, 28 - for allegedly extorting Rs 4 lakh from a student's father and then blackmailing him, with photos and videos of their encounters, for a further Rs 20 lakh, according to a report by NDTV.

The victim, a businessman residing in western Bengaluru, had enrolled his five-year-old daughter in the school on 2023. He met Rudagi and established contact. Both of them used separate sim cards and used to communicate through video calls and messages. Using those videos for blackmailing, Rudagi extorted Rs 4 lakh from the victim.

Then, in January, she demanded Rs 15 lakh. As the father hesitated, she visited his home on the pretext of borrowing Rs 50,000.

Later, as his business suffered setbacks, the father made a decision to relocate his family to Gujarat. And he needed the child's Transfer Certificate.

According to the father, in early March, on reaching the school, he found himself cornered in Rudagi's office, with Kale and Sagar also present. The latter showed the father the private photographs and videos, and then demanded Rs 20 lakh or these would be sent to his family, ANI reported.

The father said he tried to reason with them and negotiated a payment of Rs 15 lakh, with an initial transfer of Rs 1.9 lakh. But the demands continued.

Investigations revealed that Rudagi also intimidated the victim by making false claims about her strong connections with a former assistant commissioner of police in the Malleswaram sub-division, Indian Express reported.

On March 17, Rudagi called him on the phone to remind him of the payment - Rs 5 lakh for a former police officer and Rs 1 lakh each for Sagar and Kale, and the remaining Rs 8 lakh for her. The victim then called the police, who quickly established that the police officer being mentioned had no connection. Rudagi, Sagar, and Kale were arrested and sent to judicial custody for 14 days, according to ANI.