Noida 'honeytrap' gang lures men to parties, extorts them; six held

NOIDA: A gang that lured people to lavish farmhouse parties and later accused them of misbehaving or sexually harassing women to extort money was busted with the arrest of six persons, including two women, from Greater Noida.

This is the second gang to be busted in the city this year. In Jan, a mother-daughter duo was among four persons to be held in Surajpur for running a similar honey trap racket.The gang's mastermind would use her minor daughter, niece and other girls to befriend men online and extort money from them.
Additional DCP (Greater Noida) Ashok Kumar told TOI on Wednesday they arrested the mastermind behind the racket, Raj Chaudhary alias Haseen Mohammad, two women Sanjana Yadav and Rifa alias Rustam, who would be used to 'honey trap' men attending the parties and other clients, and their accomplices - Bhupendra Singh, Faizan Ahmed and Rahul Kumar - from a Scorpio in Pari Chowk after a complaint was submitted by a Moradabad resident Asadur Rahman.
In his complaint, Rahman claimed he had got Rifa's number from a friend who had attended one of the parties organised by the gang and contacted the woman on Monday seeking a meeting. On Tuesday, Rifa allegedly picked up Rahman from Kalindi Kunj in a car and took him to a desolate spot near the intersection.
"While the two were inside the car, the other gang members made some videos of the two in a compromising situation. They accused soon surrounded the car and accused Rahman of rape. The men took him to Chaudhary's car - a Scorpio registered in Delhi - and asked him to pay Rs 5 lakh. They threatened to file a police complaint when he refused. They allegedly also assaulted Rahman and his friend Nizam, whom the former had called for assistance," the additional DCP said.
Rahman, who submitted a complaint at Beta-2 police station on Tuesday, claimed to have paid the gang Rs 50,000.
Police teams tracking the Scorpio and the phone number used by the woman traced the car near Pari Chowk and arrested the six men.
The Scorpio, five Aadhaar cards, four ATM cards and other documents were also seized from them.
"The gang would circulate open invites to lavish farmhouse parties on social media and extort money from men attending them after taking their compromising videos with their women agents. They would threaten to file rape cases against men who refused to pay up. We have found that the gang honey-trapped another person in Sector 135 about 15 days ago," the ADCP said.
The accused were booked under IPC sections on charges of extortion, assault, cheating, forgery, wrongful confinement and criminal conspiracy.