Bhubaneswar: A 27-year-old man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly capturing and circulating an intimate video of his former girlfriend.

The accused, Susant Kumar Behera, a medicine representative, claimed that he had shot the video in 2016. He circulated the video on online platforms in January this year to defame the 25-year-old woman.

Police said that both the accused and the victim were in a relationship and were intimate physically as Behera had promised to marry her.

"However, Behera later backed out from his promise. When the girl pressurised him for marriage, he started blackmailing her with the video clip. Later, the accused circulated the video and some photographs on the social platform," said an investigating officer. The woman lodged a police complaint on Tuesday after she came to know about the presence of the video in public forums.

Acting on the complaint, the police arrested Behera from Jatni on Thursday morning.

"Behera had deliberately circulated the photographs of another youth, who is also a friend of the woman, to divert police attention towards the other youth," said the officer.

Circulation of intimate videos of women on various social networking platforms has a menace in the state. In January this year, director general of police R.P. Sharma issued a public advisory and a standard operating procedure for the police to take up investigation in cases related to sharing of nude videos and photographs of women in cyber space.

According to police records, 73 cases related to circulation of nude photographs and videos were registered in 2016. But, the number went up to 184 in 2017. Some 31 such cases have already been registered by March this year. The police have also arrested as many as 126 persons in connection with these cases in 2016 and 2017.

Deputy commissioner of police Anup Kumar Sahoo advised people to refrain from sharing personal things publicly. "It is better not to capture intimate scenes as they can easily reach others in the digital era. We also urge the victims to lodge complaints with us so that we can arrest the accused," said Sahoo.

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