Coimbatore : Police Wednesday arrested a person for impersonating as famous playback singer Arrnan Malik and befriending many women on social media and blackmailing them.

According to police, 30-year old Mahendra Varman, hailing from Ulundurpet in Villupuram district, had sent friend requests to many women in the name of Malik and managed to make friends.

He also managed to receive obscene photographs of some of the women and threatened to post these photographs on social media and collected lakhs of rupees by blackmailing them, they said.

Based on the complaint of a woman, the District Crime Branch police laid a trap and directed the complainant to ask the impersonator to come at a certain place to handover the money. Police arrested the conman, while talking to the woman, they said.