Hubballi Police Bust Gang in Honey Trap Extortion Case, Five Arrested
Hubli, EXPRESS News: The Ashok Nagar police have arrested five members of a gang involved in an attempt to “honey trap” a city-based businessman and extort money by threatening to release his obscene photos and videos on social media.
The victim, 36-year-old businessman Chagganlal Choudhary, who runs a utensils shop in Hubballi, reported the incident to the police. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Mahaning Nandagavi, Choudhary approached the Ashok Nagar police on October 6, 2024, after being blackmailed by a woman named Zoya alias Shabana Begum Nadaf. She demanded Rs 5 lakh from him, threatening to release compromising videos and photographs she had secretly recorded on her mobile phone.
DCP Nandagavi explained the gang’s modus operandi. The gang, which included Zoya’s lover Syed Tahsildar and another accomplice, Parvin, would collect the mobile numbers of potential victims by noting down numbers displayed on business establishment boards. They would then send random WhatsApp messages to these individuals. If the recipient responded, casual conversations were initiated, eventually leading to Zoya being introduced.
Once a relationship developed, Zoya would lure the victim to a room in Rajnagar, where she would secretly record explicit videos of the individual, either herself or through an accomplice filming from a nearby window. The videos would later be used to blackmail the victim into paying money to prevent their release on social media.
The other accused are Tousif Mehaboobsab Nalband, Abdul Rehman Bhillewale, all the accused are from Hubballi, the police said.
The police have recovered five mobile phones, two motorcycles, and Rs 9,000 in cash from the accused. Investigations are ongoing to determine if the gang was involved in similar crimes, and the police have urged any additional victims to come forward and file complaints. The DCP also mentioned that the gang is suspected of operating in other cities.
