Nashik, Jan 29 (IANS): A Nashik jobless man has fled after allegedly threatening and extorting around Rs 40 lakh from his childhood sweetheart, police said here on Monday.

According to the Mumbainaka Police Station here, the unemployed youth identified as one Abhijit N. Ahire was a neighbour and acquainted with the victim woman, 31, since their schooldays.

Later, the friendship blossomed into a discreet love-affair, and while the woman went on to become a computer engineer and then took up a good job in Gujarat, the boy remained a vagabond.

However, invoking their past relationship and affair, Ahire started extorting money from the woman citing various excuses and she kept obliging, for over five years, either voluntarily or reluctantly.

When she refused, Ahire allegedly showed her their intimate photos and videos and threatened to expose her before her relatives and friends if she failed to fulfil his constant monetary needs.

Apparently fed up by his demands and scared of his threats, the woman finally gathered courage to come and lodge a complaint with the Mumbainaka Police Station on Saturday, said the Investigating Officer Pankaj Sonawane.

“The accused man had allegedly claimed that he was working somewhere in a Gulf country, but he may have tried to fool the girl to part with the cash in big and small installments or through online payments, taking advantage of their old relationship,” Sonawane told IANS.

Senior Police Inspector Yuvraj Patki said that police teams are on the lookout for the accused Ahire -- whose current whereabouts are not known -- but police suspect he may have holed up somewhere in the state.