The City Crime Branch (CCB) Police have arrested six persons including two women for trying to extort Rs. 25 lakh from a Kerala businessman who was honey trapped.

The arrested have been identified as Yousuf, resident of Shankarapura in Chikkamagaluru, Lathif of Marthalli in Bengaluru, C.P. Naushad, a native of Kannur district in Kerala, presently residing at R.T. Nagar in Bengaluru, Rashid, also a native of Kannur district in Kerala, presently residing at Nethravathi Layout in Bengaluru, Heena, a resident of Udayagiri in Mysuru and Anitha, a resident of Hudikeri village in Madikeri district. Disclosing this at a press meet here yesterday, City Police Commissioner Dr. A. Subrahmanyeswara Rao said that while Yousuf and Lathif were arrested from a hotel near Highway Circle in Mysuru on Mar. 9, the other four accused were arrested on Mar. 11 in Bengaluru.

The case: Kerala-based businessman, identified as T.V. Nizar,  who used to come to Mysuru on business trips regularly, stayed in a hotel on Hunsur Road.

Naushad, one of the accused, who also hailed from Nizar’s place, knew his money transactions and planned to loot him.

He somehow managed to get the mobile number of Nizar and planned to honey trap him (Nizar) by conspiring with other accused. He then gave the mobile number of Nizar to another accused Heena to honey trap him.

At first, Heena gave a missed call to Nizar, who in turn called the missed call number. Heena who picked up the call, introduced herself and began to talk casually and after sometime became intimate with Nizar.

Offering physical intimacy along with her friend Anitha, Heena convinced Nizar to come to Mysuru and meet them. Nizar, who came to Mysuru, stayed in a private hotel on Mysuru-Hunsur Road, where Heena and Anitha met him and cozied up in bed which was videographed secretly on a mobile phone and the video footage was sent to the other members of the gang who decided to blackmail Nizar using the footage.

Later, Nizar receives a call from an unknown person, who said that he had the video of him (Nizar) in compromising position and put forth a demand of Rs. 25 lakh from Nizar saying that he would upload the video on social networking sites and also send to media if Nizar does not pay the money and also sent a DVD containing the video to Nizar.

The caller also threatened of murdering him (Nizar) if he went to the Police. Since then, Nizar began to receive extortion calls frequently following which, he lodged a complaint at Vijayanagar Police Station five days ago which was handed over to the City Crime Branch (CCB).

The CCB Police, who took up the case, arrested Yousuf and Lathif near Highway Circle on Thursday (Mar. 9) and based on the information provided by the duo, the CCB Police arrested the remaining four from Bengaluru on Saturday (Mar. 11). Yousuf and Rashid have been remanded to judicial custody.

The CCB Police have also seized the DVD, mobile phones and a car used for the crime.

While Lathif has a murder case registered at Iratti Police Station in Kerala, Naushad has two cases registered against him at Mattanur in Kerala. Rashid and Heena have two cases each registered against them at various Police Stations in Bengaluru.

DCPs Dr. H.T. Shekar and N. Rudramuni supervised CCB ACP C. Gopal, CCB Inspectors K.C. Prakash and Prasanna Kumar, SI M.J. Jayasheelan and staff in the nabbing and seizing operation.

City Police Commissioner Dr. A. Subrahmanyeswara Rao has urged the public to be carefull about such persons and has asked the hotel owners to collect necessary information of people taking rooms for rent at the hotel and inform Police if they find anything suspicious.