Actor Upendra and his wife Priyanka Upendra
| Photo Credit: File photo
Bengaluru police have arrested a 25-year-old man from Bihar for allegedly hacking the mobile phones of Kannada actor Upendra, his wife and actor Priyanka Upendra, and their manager, and cheating several people of lakhs of rupees through cyber fraud.
The arrested accused has been identified as Vikas Kumar, a resident of Dashrathpur in Bihar.
According to the Sadashivanagar police, on September 15, Priyanka Upendra received a suspicious link on her mobile phone. Since she had ordered a few items online, she clicked on the link after the sender insisted she share an OTP. Soon after, her WhatsApp account was hacked.
The hackers then messaged several contacts from her phone, claiming she was in an emergency and urgently needed money. Many, including close friends and associates, transferred around ₹55,000 each to the account shared by the fraudsters.
When Priyanka realised that her phone was compromised, she tried calling her husband Upendra and their manager — only to find out that their phones, too, had been hacked. Even her son reportedly transferred ₹50,000, thinking his mother was in trouble.
By the time Priyanka discovered the fraud, the hackers had siphoned off over ₹1.5 lakh from various people. She immediately lodged a complaint at the Sadashivanagar police station.
Acting on the complaint, the police tracked the digital trail and found that the accused were operating from Dashrathpur in Bihar, where several youths are allegedly involved in similar cybercrime activities.
A police team travelled to Bihar and found around 150 youngsters in the area engaged in cyber fraud. The team eventually arrested Vikas Kumar and brought him to Bengaluru.
He is being questioned by the Central Division Cyber Crime Unit and Sadashivanagar police. The police are trying to trace other members of the racket.
Published – November 12, 2025 03:48 pm IST
