2 of honey-trap gang held for assaulting, robbing & torturing man; 3 on the run

Police identified the arrested men as Dinesh Chaudhary, a resident of Jaipur in Rajasthan, and Nitin, a resident of Ateli in Mahendergarh district. The woman and two others are still at large, police said.Police said the gang used the woman to entrap mostly young working professionals and made their “objectionable videos” to extort money.

A 24-year-old air-conditioner mechanic was allegedly assaulted, robbed, held hostage and extorted of money by five members of a “honey-trap” gang, police said on Thursday, adding that a case has been registered on the man’s complaint and two suspects have been arrested while three are on the run.

The man alleged that he was kept in a forest area for one night and the next day he was taken to a budget hotel where the suspects called two more persons. (Representative image)

Police identified the arrested men as Dinesh Chaudhary, a resident of Jaipur in Rajasthan, and Nitin, a resident of Ateli in Mahendergarh district. The woman and two others are still at large, police said.Police said the gang used the woman to entrap mostly young working professionals and made their “objectionable videos” to extort money.

Sanjeev Balhara, assistant commissioner of police (DLF), said they received the complaint on June 7 after the man escaped from Narnaul, in Mahendragarh district, where he was being held captive by the suspects. “The man told us that he had befriended a woman on a social media site and they exchanged their phone numbers. After a few chat sessions, the woman told him that she was a call girl,” he said.

Balhara said they decided to meet at a hotel following which the woman sent him a location and the number of a room at a budget hotel in Sector 29. “After spending half an hour together, the man was about to leave when two men entered the room and started assaulting him. They also threatened to frame him for rape,” he said.

Speaking to HT, the man said, “They forced me to remove my clothes and get intimate with the woman at gunpoint. They recorded the act and clicked pictures and asked me to pay ₹10 lakh. They snatched my gold chain, ring, wallet that contained credit and debit cards, mobile phone and cash. One of them told me that he will ‘handle the situation’ and asked me to wait in his car.”

Police said the two men later boarded the car and held him at gunpoint. They took his cash and used his debit card to withdraw ₹6,000 from his savings account. “They took him towards the Chandigarh highway and midway, the woman got out. They tied him up and blindfolded him so that he could not identify where he was being taken to,” said Balhara.

The man alleged that he was kept in a forest area for one night and the next day he was taken to a budget hotel where the suspects called two more persons. They sexually abused him, tortured him and assaulted him and forced him to arrange for money. “They had taken two rooms for a night. I somehow managed to jump off the first floor window and raised the alarm. The hotel owner refused to help me and I took shelter at a house nearby, They helped me to reach out to the police who brought me home,” he said.

Police said they registered a complaint under sections 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 377 (sodomy), 379-B (snatching with force), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sector 29 police station on Tuesday.

Teams were formed and raids were conducted to nab two the suspects.