Subject: Report of Unauthorized Access, Data Theft, Blackmail, and Coercion by Prashanna Shrestha
My name is Ritesh Chauhan, and this is a real account of an extremely difficult period of my student life. I am sharing this story so that others can understand the dangers of manipulation, misuse of trust, and digital privacy violations.
During my college life, I shared a room with a classmate named Prashanna Shrestha, who came from a financially strong background. Over time, he started influencing me into online gambling after watching YouTube influencers who promoted such platforms. He repeatedly encouraged it, and eventually he began giving me money to gamble with.
Between 2023 and 2024, he provided around ₹4 lakh, which we eventually lost.
Around the same time, an incident occurred that completely changed everything. While I was asleep in the hostel, Prashanna illegally used my fingerprint to unlock my phone. He copied all of my personal data — including WhatsApp chats, private photos, files, and other sensitive information.
He later shared some of this data with his friends and even showed it to other students. When I confronted him months earlier, he assured me that everything was deleted. That promise was a lie.
This constitutes:
After accessing my phone illegally, he copied and saved:
This constitutes:
Prashanna shared my private data with:
This act caused emotional distress, damage to my reputation, and breach of privacy for me and my family.
This constitutes:
In 2025, during the summer holidays, I visited his home in Nepal. There, I discovered that he still had all the data. When I questioned him, another conflict began.
Prashanna then:
He repeatedly threatened to expose my private data unless I paid money. He sent messages and voice notes stating I must repay money lost in gambling and give him additional amounts. If I failed to pay, he would send my private files to my family.
This constitutes:
Between 2023–2024, he pushed me into online gambling by showing influencer videos. He provided approximately ₹4 lakh for gambling, which both of us lost.
In 2025, his parents and lawyers tried to force me to sign a fake loan agreement of ₹7 lakh. They threatened that if I refused, they would release my personal information.
This constitutes:
His parents later called me to their home along with lawyers and other people. They tried to force me to sign an agreement, claiming I owed their family ₹7 lakh and must repay it within a year. They threatened that if I refused, my personal information would be sent to my family and others.
I did not sign.
At his home in Nepal, his parents, lawyers, and other individuals attempted to pressure me into signing the false agreement.
This constitutes:
That same night, under extreme fear and stress, I left their home, traveled 1200 km back to my college in a general train, without food or money, and kept my phone switched off.
Due to the threats:
This constitutes:
When I reached college, I finally told everything to my family. They stood by me and supported me completely.
Later, I also discovered that Prashanna had accessed private photos and files belonging to my brother, Anish Chauhan, possibly through the Google Drive account that was logged into my phone at the time.
I have retained the following evidence:
This situation is not just about money or conflict between roommates. It clearly involves:
These actions have caused serious stress, harm, and emotional damage, and they represent clear violations of privacy and personal safety.
Based on the above, the actions of Prashanna Shrestha clearly fall under the following categories of wrongdoing: