LUCKNOW: A 37-year-old grocer in Meerut was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly sodomising six people, including five minor boys, and demanding money from them and threatening to circulate their videos on social media, senior police officials said.

The police officials said the accused secretly installed a CCTV camera in his private room where he anally abused the victims and recorded the act to blackmail them. They said the accused had been doing this for the last seven months but the families of six victims approached the police and filed a complaint in this connection at Saroorpur police station in Meerut on August 19.

Meerut Deputy Superintendent of Police (Rural) Kamlesh Bahadur Singh said the accused, identified as Ajit Kumar of Mainaputathi village, runs a grocery shop there. He added that one of the victims was 21 years old and the other five were minors.

Police launched a manhunt after the accused fled his house, leaving behind his 70-year-old mother and wife, who is mentally challenged. He was arrested on Tuesday after his whereabouts were tracked through electronic surveillance, the ASP said. The accused confessed to having anally abused as many as 12 different people, but six others have not come forward due to social stigma. However, police are trying to get them to file complaints as well.

“The accused made the videos viral on social media around August 15, which led to the victims’ families contacting the police,” he said.