Two arrested for extorting money from malaria inspector through honey trap in Panipat

With the arrest of two persons, a team of CIA-2 Panipat claimed to have busted a gang allegedly involved in trapping a malaria inspector in a honey trap by threatening to implicate him in a false rape case. The accused have been identified as Ashish and Sonu of Naultha village.

While interacting with mediapersons at the Mini-Secretariat, DSP (Traffic) Suresh Kumar Saini said that on July 7, a resident of Israna lodged a complaint at the old industrial police station in which he alleged that around 10 days earlier, he had met an acquaintance, Narendra Pandit of Naultha, along with two women. One woman introduced herself as a lawyer, the other as her friend. They took his cellphone number. Later, the complainant began receiving calls from them and was lured to a flat on July 6. There, after being offered a cold drink, he was forced into a compromising situation. Two men barged in, snatched his mobile phone, misbehaved with him and threatened to implicate him in a rape case. They demanded Rs 11 lakh, finally settling at Rs 4 lakh. On the spot, they forcibly collected Rs 22,500 and pressurised him to arrange rest of the amount.

On his complaint, a case was registered under Sections 308(2) and 308(6) of the BNS against the accused. Panipat Superintendent of Police (SP) Bhupender Singh handed over the probe to CIA-II Inspector Phool Kumar and his team. Using technical and human intelligence, the team nabbed Sonu from grain market and Ashish from the Sonepat road. During interrogation, they confessed to have committed the crime and admitted conspiring with their two women accomplices who were on the run. The accused revealed they had rented a flat in Panipat with a plan to lure people into relationships, secretly record obscene videos, and then blackmail them for money, the DSP said.

The DSP further said that Sonu had a serious criminal record, with 15 cases of murder, robbery, snatching and Arms Act registered against him. Earlier, Sonu was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in a robbery case. In March this year, he was released from the Karnal jail on 70-day parole, but failed to return on June 3, thereby jumping bail.

The arrested accused were produced in a court on Thursday and remanded to police custody for interrogation. The police were now tracking the absconding female accomplices of the accused, the SP said.