Crime Branch busts gang involved in honey-trapping

 

 

Crime Branch sleuths busted a gang involved in honey-trapping influential persons city and extorting money from them. The gang compromised of seven persons, including a news contributor to a leading city web portal, who used to target rich persons. The Crime Branch came into picture after a senior citizen approached with complaint about receiving a demand to cough-up lakhs of rupees. The person was lured into the trap by the gang who has four good looking and smart girls on their pay rolls. They target such high profile personality and then record their encounters and extort heavy sum from them. Assistant Commissioner of Police Abhijeet Patil tasked the Anti HBT Squad of Crime Branch to lay a trap.

 

The Crime Branch team, during preliminary investigation, learnt that the gang had already extorted Rs 1.78 lakh from the complainant and now the culprits are seeking more hefty sum or threatened to make the explicit videos viral on social media. ACP Patil led squad guided the complainant and latter established contact with the gang and the meeting was fixed at a city hotel. The complainant was targeted from September onwards and finally on December 18, the Crime Branch caught the three members of the gang while accepting marked notes. The police recovered cash of Rs 3 lakh and mobile handsets from the accused persons.

 

The gang had earlier insisting on Rs 2 crore and finally as per guidance from Crime Branch, the complainant bargained hard and brought down the extortion demand to Rs 60 lakh. As the complainant only offered Rs 3 lakh, the gang members did not accept the money and insisted on full payment in one go. The waiting Crime Branch team pounced and caught hold the three members of the gang The gang were identified as Ashwin Dhanvijay (39), Nitin Kamble (38), Kunal Puri (42), all residents of Ajni; Ritesh alias Pappu Durugkar (41), Hudkeshwar; Ashish Kawde (36) and Avinash Sakhre (35), both hailing from Gondia, and Ravikant Kamble, Nagpur. Kamble works with a leading web portal in city and is well connected with police circle. The gang was arrested by team of PI Dilip Chandan, API Nitin Chulpar, HC Ganesh Barde, Pravin Rode, Shrikant Uikey, Prashant Gabhne, Sudhir Pawar and Aman Raut.