Following a complaint, the man was arrested and remanded in judicial custody. (Representational)

A 32-year-old businessman has been arrested for allegedly blackmailing and exhorting nearly Rs 13 lakh from a woman through social media, police said on Monday.

Mohammad Salman Nawaz Sarkar, a resident of Chennai, cheated and exhorted the money from the woman by allegedly introducing himself through Facebook that he was a tycoon in Mumbai presently living in Hyderabad, a police press release said.

Believing this, the woman began chatting with him and used to talk to him over video calls in private. She also shared some of her private pictures with him, the release said.

After a few months, the man started demanding the woman money for his business and also for his medical treatment, it said.

Later, he began blackmailing her that he would make her pictures public, and it was then she stopped giving him money.

Following a complaint, Salman Nawaz Sarkar was arrested and remanded in judicial custody, the release added.