Ahmedabad: Chiloda police have booked two individuals identified as Ashfaq Rathod, 25, and Shahrukh Belim, 24, both from Chhala village in Gandhinagar, in an abetment to suicide case. This comes after a couple from Gandhinagar took their own lives on September 21 after the accused allegedly filmed their private moments without consent and used the footage to blackmail the girl into a sexual relationship.

Sahil Thakor, 24, and his 16-year-old girlfriend jumped into the Narmada canal, after which Sahil’s cousin, Sunil Thakor, filed an FIR stating that about a week prior to the tragic incident, Sahil informed him that Rathod and Belim, who works as an autorickshaw driver, were threatening to share the video online. “Rathod and Belim were pressuring Sahil to persuade his girlfriend into a relationship with them, which Sahil opposed. Overwhelmed by harassment, both Sahil and his girlfriend decided to end their lives,” Sunil mentioned in the FIR.

Chiloda police inspector R. R. Parmar stated that the accused have been placed in judicial custody following a one-day remand. He added that the suspects deleted the videos from their devices and denied having recorded the couple’s intimate moments, claiming instead to possess a video of them sitting together. They have been charged with abetment to suicide, and the investigation is ongoing. DeshGujarat