Honeytrapped businessman sets himself on fire over extortion threats

A 57-year-old businessman, who was being extorted by a gang of five that allegedly trapped him and took intimate photographs of him with a woman, died by setting himself ablaze in Faridabad on Wednesday afternoon, the police said.

A 57-year-old businessman, who was being extorted by a gang of five that allegedly trapped him and took intimate photographs of him with a woman, died by setting himself ablaze in Faridabad on Wednesday afternoon, the police said.

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The man was befriended by a member of a honeytrap gang on social media and during a meeting at a hotel near Nehru Place in Delhi on June 10, he was offered drinks laced with sedatives. The gang took compromising photographs of the man and the woman, following which they extorted ₹2 lakh from him, the police said.

However, the gang was asking him to pay ₹12 lakh more and he was not in a position to do so, the police said. The suspects were identified as Jeenat, Nazia alias Juhi, Aashiya alias Ruhi, Eba and Arbaaz of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

OP Singh, the commissioner of police, Faridabad, said that they received a call around 3.15pm about a man doused in petrol setting himself ablaze on a road near a school in Sector 17. “The police team took him to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. The police found his purse at the spot, using details from which they contacted his son. He told us that a honeytrap gang was harassing his father,” he said.

The police immediately scanned the phone records of the businessman and zeroed in on the gang. They were booked under sections 384 (extortion), 306 (abetment to suicide) and 120 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code in an FIR registered at the Sector 17 police station on Wednesday.

The police said that one of the suspects had befriended the businessman on social media last month and after a few phone conversations, invited him to meet her. “She offered him drinks laced with sedatives. When the victim gained consciousness, he found himself naked on the bed. The suspects had filmed videos and clicked pictures of their victim with the woman and threatened to implicate him in a fake rape case. They also threatened to send the recordings to his family and transferred nearly ₹2 lakh from his account. Since he didn’t have any more money in his account, they asked him to arrange for ₹4 lakh,” OP Singh said.

Following the incident, the businessman confined himself to his residence in Sector 17 and stopped taking all calls. He shared his ordeal with his son and contacted a few lawyers, who later tried to extort money from him, the son said.

The police identified Nazia alias Juhi as the kingpin of the gang. They would “trap” businessmen in Faridabad and Delhi, and extort their victims by threatening to implicate them in fake cases or revealing the videos and photos to their family members.

Due to fear of being exposed, no cases were filed, the police said. They were operational for the past three years and had made more than ₹50 lakh.