Bengaluru, Nov 12 : The Karnataka Police on Wednesday arrested a man from Bihar for allegedly hacking the mobile phones of Kannada actor Upendra and his actress-wife Priyanka Upendra, and siphoning off several lakhs of rupees through a cyber fraud.

The police identified the accused as Vikas Kumar, a resident of Dashrathpur in Bihar, following an investigation initiated at the Sadashivanagar Police Station in Bengaluru.

Police said that the celebrity couple's phones were hacked on September 15 after Priyanka clicked on a malicious link received on her mobile related to an online purchase.

'The accused subsequently hacked Priyanka's mobile and sent fraudulent messages to her contacts, falsely claiming she needed Rs 55,000 urgently and requesting the amount be transferred,' an investigating officer said.

After receiving the message, Upendra and his manager tried calling the number, but the accused hacked their phones too. Several of their contacts, assuming the messages were genuine, transferred money to the bank accounts provided by the accused.

Upendra's son also sent Rs 50,000 to his mother's number on receiving the fake message. When others tried calling Priyanka's number, the calls kept getting disconnected, said the police.

After realising that her phone had been compromised, Priyanka filed a complaint with the Sadashivanagar Police. Acting quickly, the police traced the accused to Dashrathpur in Bihar and arrested him.

Preliminary investigations revealed startling details -- besides Vikas Kumar, over a hundred youths aged between 20 and 25 are reportedly involved in similar cybercrimes targeting unsuspecting victims for money.

It may be recalled that Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara had said that in the first seven months of 2025, a total of 8,620 cybercrime cases were reported in the state. Bengaluru city topped the list with 6,301 cases, followed by Bengaluru Rural district with 258.

Out of the 53,000 cybercrimes reported since April 2023, only 70 offenders have been convicted over the past 28 months. On average, the state records about 22,000 cases every year, he said.

Parameshwara added that to tackle the problem, the government has set up 43 new cybercrime police stations across Karnataka.

/IANS