Head constable, RWA secretary among 4 held for extortion in Greater Noida

Police said that so far, they have identified at least three men the suspects had allegedly targeted, two of whom had registered cases against the suspects at the Dadri police station

The secretary of a residents’ welfare association (RWA), a head constable of the provincial armed constabulary (PAC), a mother of three and her live-in partner were arrested by the Dadri police on Wednesday for allegedly honey-trapping men and extorting money from them.

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The suspects were identified as Vijay Singh Cheema (45), the head constable of the 49th battalion of the PAC, also the alleged gang leader; Seema Sirohi (35), her live-in partner Arun Kumar (33) and RWA secretary of Greater Noida’s Sector 36, Pushpendra Narayan (32).

According to the police, the woman would allegedly contact wealthy businessmen on the pretext of seeking a job.

“She would then start texting them, sending photos and developing a friendship after which she would lure them to her house in Dadri’s Zu-3 Sector. Her partner, Kumar, would record them in compromising positions and the duo would blackmail their victims by threatening to file a rape case against them,” Vaibhav Krishna, senior superintendent of police, said.

He said the suspects would allegedly pretend to have contacted a sub-inspector (SI) of the local police station to pressurise their victims. “The head constable (Cheema) would pretend to be an SI from the Kasna police station and would scare the victims and threaten to take them with him to the station. The suspects would then extort money from these men on the pretext of settling the case and reaching a compromise,” the SSP said.

Police said that so far, they have identified at least three men the suspects had allegedly targeted, two of whom had registered cases against the suspects at the Dadri police station. “They extorted ₹5 lakh from one of them and ₹3 lakh from the other. The third man had not filed a complaint. We suspect there are more people who have been duped by the suspects,” the SSP said.

According to the police, Narayan was tasked with providing contact details of victims. “Sirohi had approached him (Narayan) four years back with her husband to look for a house on rent. About seven months ago, she approached Narayan again, this time with Kumar, to rent a house. Narayan, in turn, directed her to a friend to get them a house. However, the friend could not arrange for a house on rent, which was when Narayan suggested to the woman and her partner that they could honey trap his friend to get a house as well as to mint some money,” Krishna told media persons.

Police said Sirohi has an ongoing divorce case with her husband, with whom she has three kids – aged 14, 12 and 10 years. During questioning, Kumar, an engineering graduate, revealed that he and Sirohi, an arts graduate, were planning to get married as soon as the divorce case was in its final stages, the police said. They added that the common contact was allegedly Cheema who knew Narayan as well as Sirohi, and that Cheema allegedly brought the gang together. Final stages

The suspects were active since at least seven months. The police are now working on tracing more cases in which they may have been involved. They are also pushing for departmental action to be taken against Cheema.

The arrests took place after a tip-off received by the superintendent of police (rural) by an informant about the activities of the suspects. Police also recovered ₹2.76 lakh from the suspects.

“A Santro car and am SI’s uniform and ID were also recovered. They had spent a major part of the extorted money on buying household gadgets. We have also recovered some videos that will be a part of the investigation,” Krishna said.

The suspects were produced before a magistrate and later sent to jail.

The FIR against the suspects was registered at the Dadri police station. Sections levied were 384 (punishment for extortion), 389 (Putting person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion), 171 (Wearing garb or carrying token used by public servant with fraudulent intent), 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (Using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code.