1st arrest in Kulhad Pizza owner case: Fired woman staff nabbed for blackmailing couple

New Delhi: Taking quick action in the Kulhad Pizza couple scandal, the Jalandhar Police on Saturday arrested a woman for ‘leaking’ their private & intimate video in public domain, with an intent to ‘avenge’ her dismissal from the job.

The woman used to work at the start-up firm of Kulhad Pizza couple Sehaj Arora & Gurpreeet Kaur but was fired after some days on account of poor performance.

A leading portal, citing police statement, reports that this woman made the private video of Kulhad Pizza couple, viral on the social media and was also blackmailing them to derive monetary benefits. Pizza shop owner Sehaj Arora had filed FIR with police, two days ago and sought action against ‘vested elements’ who wanted to milk their hard work for personal gains.

The couple with a pizza start-up, which recently welcomed their first baby, found themselves red-faced when their explicit video made it to social media. The couple however strongly repudiated the claims and said it was a doctored video created via Artificial Intelligence (AI), with malicious intentions.

As per reports, the fired woman staffer was demanding Rs 20,000 as ransom money for the couple. She has been arrested under Sections 384 (extortion) and 509 (insult to a woman’s modesty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

How woman blackmailed the Pizza couple

The woman staffer created a fake account on Instagram and started her bid to extort money from the couple, for keeping their explicit content secret.

She demanded Rs 20,000 from the couple and threatened them, “if they don’t pay the amount, she will make the private video public”. She also provided them with a bank account number and asked to deposit the amount.

“If they don’t pay, be ready for the consequences,” the woman texted the couple.

The police, after nabbing her, also traced the bank account number to her.

Notably, one YouTuber is also under police lens over role in making the video public and then resorting to blackmailing & extorting the couple.

Meanwhile, the pizza couple, distraught over the episode, made a public appeal yesterday and asked people not to forward/shared the video.