Man held for honey trapping aged businessman

A 25-year-old conman honey-trapped a septuagenarian businessman and extorted Rs 14.9 lakh from him.

The accused Yuvaraj chatted with Kumar (73) (name changed), a private firm owner living in HSR Layout, and later blackmailed him in the guise of a policeman threatening to put him behind the bars. Police recovered Rs 9 lakh from Yuvaraj, a resident of JP Nagar’s Ragi Gudda, and lodged him in jail.

Yuvaraj, a fitness equipment seller, befriended insurance agent Rani (name changed) in a gymnasium. The duo became business partners. Rani met Kumar in his office four years ago over an insurance policy and stayed in touch since. She spoke to Kumar frequently and texted.

Rani recently approached Kumar with a request for a job for her friend Suma and introduced the latter to the elderly businessman. Suma also grew closer to Kumar and spoke to him frequently. Wanting to honey-trap Kumar, Yuvaraj began sending intimate messages and pictures to him from both Rani’s and Suma’s mobile phones. Kumar reciprocated to Rani’s messages.

On August 3, Yuvaraj sent a message to Kumar as Suma asking him to meet on Hosur Road. Kumar went there assuming he was going to meet Suma, but Yuvaraj and two others introduced themselves as crime police and told Kumar that an FIR has been filed against him for sending intimate messages to Rani and Suma. They asked Kumar money to close the case.

When Kumar paid Rs 3.4 lakh to Yuvaraj, the latter pretended to delete obscene messages. Kumar took Yuvaraj near his house and paid him a further Rs 6 lakh.

Two days later, Yuvaraj demanded Rs 5 lakh more. When Kumar refused, Yuvaraj threatened to send the obscene chats to his family members. Kumar sent Rs 5 lakh to Yuvaraj through a friend. On August 10, Yuvaraj again called Kumar asking him to pay Rs 50,000 at Bannappa Park. While handing over the money, Kumar suspected that Yuvaraj was not a policeman. He approached Halasurugate police and lodged a complaint against Yuvaraj and the two women.

A senior police official said they have arrested Yuvaraj and are investigating the role of the two women in the extortion case. “We have learnt that the duo was aware that Yuvaraj was texting Kumar from their phones,” the officer said.

Rani had approached Kumar to invest in her business some time back, but Kumar refused to accept her proposal. She had briefly stopped speaking to him.