Phagwara: Six women from Uganda and Tanzania have been arrested from a village in Phagwara for allegedly looting a businessman at knife point and threatening him to implicate in a molestation case, police said on Sunday.
They were nabbed from the Lawgate area in Maheru village on intervening night of Friday and Saturday under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 384 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, they said.
The accused were living in private paying guest accommodations in Maheru and Chaheru villages, Satnampura police station SHO Gaurav Dhir said.
They were arrested on a complaint of a resident of Hanumangarh in Rajasthan, presently running a business in Maheru, he said.
The complainant told police that he was returning from a dhaba on February 26 night when a woman signalled him to stop near Chahwala Chowk, and pleaded for help.
"She took me aside where five other women were standing," he said in his complaint.
"Pushing me against a wall, the woman who had sought help took out a knife from her purse and all threatened me to hand them over whatever I had in my pocket," he further alleged.
"The foreign nationals also threatened me that they would raise an alarm saying I have attempted to molest them if I did not oblige," he said in the complaint.
The man handed over Rs 2,000 to them and later reported the matter to police, Dhir said.
The SHO said that all six foreign nationals were on Saturday produced before a court which sent them to judicial custody.
The embassies of the two countries of the arrested women are also being informed, he added.
Published 03 March 2024, 15:54 IST