A woman and her boyfriend along with his friend were arrested by the Soladevanahalli police for extorting money through the honey trap.
Arpitha B N (22), her 25-year-old boyfriend Pavan Kumar and his friend Siddhartha (45) are the arrested. According to a complaint filed by one of the victims the trio was taken into custody.
Arpitha used to lure the men on social media platforms with fake profile pictures. First, she would send friend requests to men and invite them over. Once they come to her place, she used to seduce them. Then his boyfriend and his friend would barge into the house as a police officer and as a news reporter in a pre-planned strategy and would go on to rob him.
The victims than would be threatened by framing in an immoral trafficking case and send them to jail. The trio has looted several victims, say police.
Their extortion bid came to light when one of the victims, a grocery shop owner informed the police.
In his complaint, the victim stated that the woman took groceries from him and promised to pay later. She invited him over on the pretext of making the payment. Pavan and Siddhartha barged into the house and robbed him of gold jewelry worth Rs 1.3 lac by threatening him. They also forced him to withdraw Rs 55,000 from an ATM on July 31. They later blackmailed him, saying they had clicked and filmed him during his intimate moments with Arpitha. They threatened to upload the photos and videos to social media if he didn’t pay up Rs 1 lac.
According to the police, the woman had married a relative five years ago but he had deserted her. After moving to Bengaluru, she befriended Pavan and the couple planned to extort men with the help of another accused Siddhartha, who posed as a policeman.
Police investigation showed that Arpitha had married a relative five years ago but her husband deserted her. She then moved to Bengaluru and befriended Pavan. The couple came up with the idea of honey trapping people to make a quick buck. Pavan roped in his friend, Siddhartha, who posed as a policeman.
