Professor, aide blackmail ex-principal using footage of him viewing porn

AURANGABAD: An assistant professor and a computer operator of the Marathwada College of Education here used CCTV footage of a former principal watching pornographic content on his laptop while in service to extort lakhs of rupees from him.
The duo demanded Rs 25 lakh from the former principal and managed to get him to give them cheques for Rs 8 lakh. They withdrew Rs 5 lakh from his account using the cheques and soon began demanding more money. Fed up with their harassment, the former principal approached city police commissioner Amitesh Kumar following which a discreet probe was conducted for about two months.
Late on Thursday, the crime branch of the city police arrested assistant professor Shaikh Imran Usman (38) and computer operator Chishti Habib Saeed (32). They have been charged with extortion, criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation and blackmail.
Speaking to TOI, Kumar said, "The accused were arrested after conducting a thorough probe. There is irrefutable evidence against them and the manner in which they committed the crime."
In his police complaint, the former principal said he had prepared an affidavit earlier this year detailing the strengths of the institution and the courses run by it. He signed the affidavit on behalf of the campus secretary and handed it over to the government inspection squad. Based on the affidavit, two of the four units of the college were withdrawn by the government and Usman feared that he would soon be out of a job, the complaint read.
The police said Usman allegedly got the campus secretary to lodge a complaint against the former principal for signing the affidavit on his behalf. Using this complaint, Usman allegedly pressurised the former principal to take voluntary retirement by making him sign a dated application on July 26.
In the meantime, Usman and Saeed managed to hold of the CCTV footage which showed the former principal watching pornographic content on his laptop in his chamber. Days after he took voluntary retirement, he was summoned by the accused to the Internal Quality Assessment Centre at the college on August 8 and shown the footage.
Usman and Saeed allegedly threatened to make the footage public and demanded Rs 25 lakh from him. Usman forcefully took three cheques for Rs 2.5 lakh, Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 from him. The next day, Saeed approached the complainant and took cheque for Rs 2 lakh. A few days later, he took another cheque for Rs 3 lakh, the police said.