A young woman who lives alone in an apartment on the 15th floor of a highrise along the EM Bypass was allegedly blackmailed by a neighbour who had clicked her intimate photographs with her fiance through a window.

The woman, a model by profession, lodged a complaint with Panchasayar police station on Wednesday night, hours after the neighbour approached her with an indecent proposal. The accused was arrested and his phone seized.

The complainant was “surprised” at the way cops handled her case. “The officers were extremely sensitive and prompt. They noted down my complaint and arrested the man. The incident involving Ushoshidi (model Ushoshi Sengupta) made them take up my matter so seriously,” she said.

Ushoshi has alleged that the police refused to act citing the area was “out of jurisdiction” after she and the driver of the app cab she was travelling in were harassed by a gang of bikers late on Monday.

The Bypass resident told Metro that the neighbour — Lakshmi Prasad, 44, a senior executive in a plywood manufacturing company — had come to her flat a fortnight ago to ask if there was a plumbing problem in her home. “He lives a floor above and I was a little surprised because the plumbing line of his flat had no connection with mine. I said there was no plumbing issue in my apartment. Then he asked if I lived alone. When I said yes, he immediately asked if I was free. I curtly asked him to leave,” she said.

The woman started putting a lock on the collapsible gate to her flat after the incident.

The bell rung around 10pm on Wednesday and she answered as she was expecting food to be delivered. But it was Prasad at the door instead.

“He asked me if I was free. I said no and was about to shut the door on his face when he took out his mobile phone and showed me a photograph of me and my fiance. He said he had more such pictures and videos and threatened to post them on social media if I did not befriend him,” the woman said.

The woman who has been living alone in the rented apartment for the past three years told Prasad he could do what he pleased and closed the door. “But I was scared and felt so insecure even in my own home. I realised this man had been a peeping Tom all through and had been clicking me.”

She called up her fiance and went to the police station to report the matter.

The accused has been booked under sections of stalking, voyeurism, criminal intimidation, outrage of modesty of a woman with words and gestures — charges which, if proved, could lead to a maximum punishment of five years of imprisonment.