Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (RJP)
Bengaluru, Apr 2: Police have arrested six persons including two women for honey trap extortion of a legislator’s aide in Byatarayanapura near here.
Manjunatha (32) Mahadeva (27) from Kengeri, Mahesh (24) from Nayandahalli, Swamy (27) from Nityanandanagara, Rukmini (37) from Konanakunte and Jayanthi (28) from bank Colony are the persons arrested.
Gangadhar, who is a close associate of a legislator, reportedly lost Rs 10 lac cash and jewellery to the extortionists. Gangadhar was also into real estate business.
Police seized Rs 1.45 lac in cash, an Indica car used for the crime and 75 grams of jewellery from the accused.
Police said all the men worked as drivers, while both the women are married and abandoned by their husbands.
Manjunatha is said to be the the main conspirator. Seeing that Gangadhar wore a lot of gold ornaments and was into real estate business too, he allegedly plotted to trap him with the help of a woman and loot him. Accordingly, he asked Mahadeva to hire a woman for this purpose. Rukmini was brought first, but as she had some burn marks on her hand, Jayanthi was called later.
They bought a new mobile and gave it to Jayanthi. She gave a missed call to Gangadhar and he phoned her back. Jayanthi introduced herself and said she worked for a bank. They spoke over the phone for about a month. Then Jayanthi called Gangadhar to meet her.
Thereafter, Jayanthi and Rukmini met Gangadhar and took him by car to Manjunatha’s farm house. All the accused came there and snatched jewelry from Gangadhar and demanded him to pay a ransom of Rs 10 lac. They even stripped him, so that he could not run anywhere. Gangadhar managed to get Rs 10 lac from his friend and paid the amount to the accused. Then Gangadhar was dropped at Kengeri by them.
Gangadhar did not report the matter to the police initially. But after his friend insisted, he filed a complaint. Police traced Jayanthi and Rukmini based on mobile call records and arrested them on March 27 and seized Rs 50,000. The police then waited for the other accused who had gone on a trip to enjoy the loot. Pondicherry, Goa, Dharmasthala and Mangaluru were their destinations.
After his arrest, Manjunatha said that he prayed at Dharmasthala to lay his hands on a victim like Gangadhar. He also shaved his head there.