BENGALURU: Three policemen, along with two women, were arrested by Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths on Thursday, on charges of running a honey-trap racket and threatening and blackmailing a real estate businessman after photographing and videotaping him in a compromising position with a woman.
The CCB police have said that the names of the arrested are Yatish, alias Mohammed Illyas and Basavaraj Mathapathi, both police constables at Sanjay Nagar police station, and Vijay Kumar, a police constable at Peenya police station.
Yasmin Taj, alias Nisha, and Christina, alias Tina, have also been arrested. The police have also seized seven mobile phones, three police identity cards and a cheque belonging to the victim.
According to the police, the complainant, RV Venkatappa, a real estate businessman, approached the Kodigehalli police on April 17 to lodge a complaint.
In his complaint to the police, Mr. Venkatappa said that he was ‘honey-trapped’ by two men who were accompanied by a woman. The incident took place at an apartment in Sahakaranagar after a woman approached him for discussions about selling a piece of land.
After he reached the room, the woman, under the pretext of searching for papers, got busy when two men entered the room and forced Venkatappa to remove his shirt and clicked photographs of him bare-bodied. As per the complaint, they even forced him to pose with the woman in a compromising position and clicked photos.
When Venkatappa tried to reason with the men in khaki, they allegedly told him that they were from the CCB. They accused Venkatappa of running a flesh trade and demanded that Venkatappa accompany them to the police station for interrogation.
As per the plan, the woman struck a deal with her associates and asked Venkatappa to settle the case on the spot by paying '2 lakhs. Trapped in the web of deception, Venkatappa agreed to close the case, immediately paying Rs 25,000 on the spot, with the remaining amount to be paid in the form of a cheque of Rs 1.75 lakh.
Sensing a trap, Venkatappa approached the police. After this the case was transferred to the CCB, as the persons involved were from the CCB, on April 19.
Based on call records, data and the information received from the victim, CCB sleuths set a trap and arrested the accused when they came to collect the money.
During interrogation, they revealed that their modus operandi would be to target rich people, take them to apartments at various places, click pictures of them in compromising positions with women and threaten them to pay up, failing which they would publish the photographs and send them to their family members.
It is suspected that more people are involved in the racket and have cheated several others in similar fashion.
A senior police officer said, "The constables told us that they wanted to make a quick buck, so they got into the racket. They also assumed that they would get away with their scam as they were part of the police department." A case has been registered in Kodigehalli police station and an investigation is in progress.
