NEW DELHI: The desire to “work closely” with foreign tourists and get paid handsomely for his services landed a 26-year-old aspiring male escort and model in deep trouble.
Sohal Hashmi, who worked as a salesman in a mobile shop at Delhi’s Palika Bazar, was kidnapped for a ransom of Rs 10 lakh by a group of six men, who ran a fake gigolo agency in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur, close to the national capital.
Delhi police rescued him on Sunday from a village in Hapur, where he was held hostage for three days.
Deputy commissioner of police (east) Rishipal said five members of the racket — Anil Kumar Yadav of Delhi’s Nihal Vihar, Bhim and Mangli of Hapur, Mohammad Fakira and Naim of Amroha — were arrested.
The mastermind, Pritam, who is said to be involved in similar crimes, is on the run.
Yadav, a share broker in debt, approached Pritam this August to become an escort after going through a newspaper advertisement that offered “young, well-built and good-looking” men to join the agency and earn between Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 a day.
Pritam was the one who placed the advertisement. But Yadav backtracked when Pritam explained to him the services he was supposed to provide to their women clients.
On September 1, Pritam met Yadav at Karol Bagh Metro station and gave him a mobile phone and a SIM card. He appointed Yadav as a telecaller for his agency and told him that his job will be to receive calls and convince callers to become male escorts.
{{/usCountry}}On September 1, Pritam met Yadav at Karol Bagh Metro station and gave him a mobile phone and a SIM card. He appointed Yadav as a telecaller for his agency and told him that his job will be to receive calls and convince callers to become male escorts.
{{/usCountry}}In about a fortnight, Yadav received more than 100 calls, but nobody agreed to become an escort.
But on October 1, east Delhi’s Farsh Bazar resident, Sohal Hashmi, accepted the offer.
Pritam and Mangli received Hashmi at the bus stop. But instead of taking him to their office at Brijghat, the duo took him to a remote village on a motorcycle. They kidnapped him at gunpoint, took away his mobile phone and belongings and held him captive.