Kharar police on Thursday arrested two women members of a gang for allegedly luring people and demanding money by threatening to register false rape cases against them.
Addressing mediapersons, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Rupinderdeep Kaur Sohi said the accused are residents of Fazilka and Faridkot. “They have been arrested, while four other members of the gang, including a woman, are at large,” she added.
As per the police, the accused women have duped a large number of tricity residents through their planned scam.
“They used to join companies as receptionists and after few days, threaten the firm owners with false rape cases. In this conspiracy, one of the their gang members, Keshav Sandhir, a resident of Ludhiana, used to impersonate a Punjab Police ASI, who would then demand money from the company owners for settling the rape case,” the DSP said.
Recently, a Nayagaon resident had given an advertisement on an online marketplace, OLX, for hiring two women staffers at his guest house in Sector 25, Chandigarh.
On seeing the ad, the accused visited his office. As per the victim, he hired the women on a monthly salary of Rs 9,000, but after few days, they started to threaten him to implicate him in a false rape case and demanded Rs 15,000 through their gang members, who posed as were cops.
The man then approached the police following which, the Fazilka woman was caught in a trap laid by the cops. Later, the Faridkot woman was also arrested.
{{/usCountry}}The man then approached the police following which, the Fazilka woman was caught in a trap laid by the cops. Later, the Faridkot woman was also arrested.
{{/usCountry}}Kharar City station house officer (SHO) inspector Bhagwant Singh said, “Recently, they had also lured a physiotherapist from Mohali by taking over Rs 1 lakh from him in the same manner. The gang was active for the last one year. We are obtaining the call details of the other accused who are absconding. We will nab them soon.”
The arrested women were produced in a local court on Thursday and sent to two-day police custody.
The case against the gang members has been registered under sections 384, 385, 389, 170 and 120-B of the IPC at the Kharar City police station.