Kumari sextortionist Kasi gets life in jail until death

MADURAI: The Mahila Court in Nagercoil, Kanniyakumari district, on Wednesday convicted a youth in cases on charges of rape, sexual harassment, cheating, extorting money from girls and sentenced him to life imprisonment until death.

Eight cases of such crimes were booked against the accused T Kasi alias Suji (28) of Ganesapuram Main Road, Nagercoil in various stations, including Vadaseri, Nesamony Nagar and Kanniyakumari under several Sections of IPC since April 2020.

Earlier, Kasi remained active on social media such as Facebook and Instagram and maintained many fake identities. He uploaded his attractive edited photos and his gym training videos to target rich, educated girls, who’re prominently active on social media and befriended them. Subsequently, he developed a hobby of chatting frequently with such girls through social media and talked in a caring and sympathetic manner. After having managed to get their personal contact numbers, he maintained communication through phone and also through WhatsApp video calls. As relationships grew with the befriended girls, Kasi met them directly, established physical intimacy and took intimate photos with them. Moreover, some nude photo screenshots taken by him during private video chats with the girls were found to be saved in his phone memory.

Later, claiming for urgent medical needs or some other reasons, he demanded money from the girls. Similarly, he extorted lakhs of rupees from many innocent girls. Only when the girls realised his hypocrisy, they started rejecting his calls and avoided him completely. After learning this, he blackmailed the girls that he would post their nude photos and videos on social media and further threatened them for large amounts of money.

As the girls buckled under threat, they gave the money he demanded. In such a way, he harassed and extorted money from many girls. The issue became known when a victim lodged a complaint against Kasi with Nagercoil All Women Police, who later arrested him after a probe.

Later, six cases against Kasi were transferred to the Crime Branch Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) in May 2020.

Additional District Judge R Joseph Joy, after cross examining prosecution witnesses, convicted Kasi on three counts and punished him under Sections 376 (2), 354 C and punishment for criminal intimidation and pronounced the life sentence to run concurrently. The Judge also directed the accused to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh as victim compensation, sources said.