Three men were arrested by a special team of the Delhi Police for allegedly honey-trapping people and extorting money from them. According to the police, their female accomplice would call their victims to a rented flat and the other members would pretend to be cops in order to extort money from them.
The three arrested have been identified as Pawan, Manjeet and Deepak.
WHAT IS THE CASE?
On May 1, a case was registered at the Paschim Vihar police station on the basis of a complaint made by Anil Kumar Garg from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad. He said that he was honey-trapped by a gang active in Delhi and they extorted Rs 1.5 lakh from him. According to Garg, the men involved in the extortion pretended to be police officials.
Afterwards, a team was formed to investigate the case. The team deployed informants and started to identify criminals who could be behind the incident.
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The police then conducted a raid at the flat where the incident occurred but could not find any of the accused. Later, they questioned the flat’s owner who gave the details of one suspect, Pawan, under whose name the rent agreement was made.
The police then showed Pawan’s photo to the complainant, who identified him immediately and said he was among those who claimed to be police officials. He was accompanied by two other men.
The flat owner told the police that Pawan was not a police official and he worked for a private company. He added that two men and a woman often frequented Pawan’s flat.
The police later received information that three of the accused would come back to the flat to take their belongings. The team then laid a trap and nabbed all the three accused on June 1.
During the police interrogation, the accused disclosed that Pawan was the mastermind. He had met Neeraj who was previously involved in cases of honey-trapping in Bahadurgarh.
Pawan then became acquainted with Honey Preet on social media and they formed a syndicate, said the police.
The three took a flat in Paschim Vihar to carry out their plan. Honey Preet made a fake Facebook profile under the name of Ritu Bansal so she could befriend wealthy looking men. She talked with the complainant on video calls and persuaded him to meet her at the flat.
When the complainant visited the flat, Manjeet barged in as a sub-inspector while Pawan and Deepak pretended to be his subordinates, said the police. Honey Preet then requested the complainant to give money to the “police”.
Police are trying to trace the whereabouts of Honey Preet.