Woman member of honeytrap gang arrested in Kota

The victims were trapped and shown false evidence against them so that they could be incriminated.

Jaipur, Jan 5: A 28-year-old woman, member of a high-profile racket extorting money from people by honey trapping them, was on Thursday arrested by the Special Operation Group (SOG) of Rajasthan Police. This the ninth arrest in the case, SP (SOG) Sanjay Shrotriya said. The woman was picked from Kota yesterday placed under arrest today.

She was working at a coaching institute there, he said. "She is an NRI woman who was involved in the gang in blackmailing and extorting money from people.

The accused woman lived in Hong Kong and was presently residing in Kota with her husband," Shrotriya said. Dozens of men were blackmailed with false rape allegations by the gang which was busted with the arrest of two persons on December 24, he said.

Naveen Devani, a lawyer, is the kingpin of the gang and is still is absconding. He along with other members used women to honey-trap the targets. They are believed to have extorted crores of rupees from at least 25 people, he added.

Devani primarily identified targets, mostly men of repute in local circles while other members including Akshat and Vijay, arrested on December 24, allegedly trafficked girls from Ajmer and parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand for this purpose.

The victims were trapped and shown false evidence against them so that they could be incriminated. The male members of the gang would approach the victims posing as mediapersons with the purported evidence including video clippings and demand a hefty amount to hush up the issue.

In some cases the amount went up to even Rs 1-2 crore, Shrotriya said. If someone refused to pay money, a false rape case was lodged against them. Seven separate cases have been registered with the SOG in connection with the extortion so far and out of the nine arrested members, two are women, he said.

PTI