Honeytrap, blackmail - police arrest four members of family

Bengaluru, 05 Dec 2018 [Fik/News Sources]: Four members of a family including a woman, her daughter, and son-in-law stand arrested on the charges of extortion.

The arrests were made by the police personnel of Nandini Layout station.

It is said that the accused had succeeded in extracting Rs 73.55 lac from Krishnadas from Mattikere here till now by blackmailing him.

As per details available, the accused threatened the victim that they would reveal the ‘honeytrap’ facts to others if he did not pay them and accordingly managed to receive money from him over a period of time.

Police are investigating the case. Babyrani (39), her daughter, Preethi (23), son-in-law, Patel Bahu (33) and his younger brother, Prasad (28) are involved in this racket.

Details

Krishnadas from Kerala has been operating a catering business in Shettihalli here. He had given a house on rent. During this period, he came in contact with a woman, Babyrani, who frequented this rented house to meet her friend.

Babyrani borrowed Rs 30,000 from Krishnadas for paying school fee of son and then got another Rs 2.75 lac for treatment of her husband. A few months thereafter, she borrowed three lac rupees to open a beauty parlour. After two months, she asked for three lac rupees to lease a house. When Krishnadas said he did not have money, she threatened him to make public a photo, claiming that she had a photo of herself in intimate moments with him. He thereafter paid this amount.

Thereafter, Patel Babu called Krishnadas over phone to inform that the latter's friend, Babyrani had been murdered and her relatives had named Krishnadas in their complaint. He offered Krishnadas to release from this case if he pays ten lac rupees to police inspector and seven lac rupees to a man named Laxminarayana Gowda. Krishnadas paid Rs 17 lac. In September, Patel Babu again called him to inform that the murder case is about to be reopened, and demanded Rs 20 lac more to give it a decent burial. Krishnadas pledged his property and raised loan of Rs 20 lac to clear his name.

In October, Preethi, daughter of Babyrani, called Krishnadas to say that he had killed her mother Babyrani and that he had got the case closed by bribing the officials. By threatening to approach the state women's commission in the issue, she collected Rs 20 lac.

To convince Krishnadas, the concerned had prepared FIR by taping police logo and photo of Babyrani to convince Krishnadas about registration of murder case. Patel Babu and Venkatesh used to threaten Krishnadas often, claiming themselves to be policemen.

In November, Patel Babu called him again, demanding payment of Rs 65 lac for being paid to a judge to close the murder case. Krishnadas suspected foul play and then filed complaint in Nandini Layout police station. The police asked Krishnadas to call Patel Babu, duly offering to pay Rs 65 lac. When Patel and Prasad came in a car to collect money, the police conducted a raid and arrested Patel, Prasad, Babyrani, and her daughter, Preethi.

The police said that Babyrani has been constructing a two-storied house out of money collected from Krishnadas.