Kannada news channel anchor Divya Vasantha arrested in extortion case

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, July 11, 2024: Kannada news channel anchor Divya Vasantha was arrested in an extortion case on Thursday. This is the third arrest in the case.

The Jeevan Bhima Nagar police arrested her in Kerala and brought her to Bengaluru. Previously, Rajanukunte Venkatesh, who claimed to be the CEO of Raj News Channel, and Divya Vasantha’s brother Sandesh Vasantha were arrested in the case.

Shivakumar, the owner of ‘Tree Spa and Beauty Parlour’, had filed a complaint on July 1, alleging that the accused tried to extort money from him.

According to a police officer, on June 21, Venkatesh and Divya Vasantha made a woman from the Northeast join the spa. Thereafter, Sandesh Vasantha visited the spa in the disguise of a customer and opted for a massage. He took a video to make it look like they were running a prostitution racket at the spa.

Armed with the video, Venkatesh sent Divya Vasantha to extort money. Venkatesh also sent the video to Shivakumar threatening to telecast it if money was not paid. Venkatesh and his team allegedly demanded Rs 15 lakh to delete the video and Shivakumar said he had only Rs 1 lakh. Venkatesh gave an ultimatum to pay Rs 8 lakh. Later, Shivakumar filed a complaint with the J B Nagar police.

The police found that Venkatesh and the other accused had created a WhatsApp group called ‘Spy Research Team’ to discuss ways to extort money. Divya Vasantha, who was working for another private news channel, had joined Venkatesh’s team about six months ago.

A police officer said, “Besides spas, we have also discovered that the gang has extorted money from others and we are investigating the same.”

After the incident came to light, Shivashri Media Private Limited under which Raj News channel operates issued a statement claiming that Venkatesh had no association with Raj News.

“Venkatesh has been working in our organisation’s marketing team as an outsourced employee. He is not the CEO of the company. We will initiate legal action against him for claiming to be the CEO,” said S Shivarudrappa, Managing Director, Shivashri Media Private Limited, in a press statement.