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Honeytrapped

The honeytrap cases in Haryana reveal a specific modus operandi. First, a woman approaches her ‘target’ on some pretext.

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Deepender Deswal

The honeytrap cases in Haryana reveal a specific modus operandi. First, a woman approaches her ‘target’ on some pretext. Sometimes, they even pose as hapless commuters on highways and seek help from people to later trap them. It is followed by a complaint of rape to the police. Extortion of money in the name of a ‘settlement’ starts without the registration of an FIR. As the person (facing the rape charge) wants to avoid a police case and courts and associated humiliation, he often succumbs to the pressure. In some cases, the trapped persons were booked on rape charges and then approached for a ‘settlement’ for the withdrawal of the police complaints. The incidents of honeytrap have been reported mainly from Hisar, Bhiwani, Sirsa, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Jind, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar and Karnal districts. 

4 Hisar cops face charges 

A honeytrap case involving the SHO of Hisar women police station was an eye-opener. The victim in the case, Rajesh, a hotel manager, had met a woman on April 26 last year. The same evening, he was shocked when he got a phone call from women police station that a complaint of rape had been lodged against him. He met the SHO and tried to explain his position. He alleged that the SHO demanded Rs 3 lakh to let him off in the case. 

Rajesh soon got a whiff of the plot and decided to approach the state Vigilance Bureau with a complaint that policemen were demanding a bribe from him. A Vigilance team on April 28, 2018, conducted a raid and arrested policeman Surender Kumar while accepting a bribe of Rs 70,000 from him near women police station. He was the driver of the SHO, Saroj Bala, and he later spilled the beans. 

Following Surender’s disclosures and further investigation, the Vigilance Bureau registered a case against the SHO under Sections 217 (Public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to save a person from punishment or a property from forfeiture), 218 (Public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save a person from punishment or a property from forfeiture), 389 (Putting a person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion), 195 (Giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure conviction of offence punishable with imprisonment for life or imprisonment) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, besides the Prevention of Corruption Act. The SHO was accused of being part of a honeytrap racket. The SHO was suspended only to be reinstated later on the excuse of shortage of staff. Hisar police spokesperson Harish Bhardwaj had said the police would file a charge-sheet in the case in court. 

A honeytrap case was also registered against Sub-Inspector Santosh Devi, who was posted at Hisar Sadar police station, after a video went viral on social media showing her demanding a bribe of Rs 1,200 from a shopkeeper to let him off in a rape complaint in Hisar in May 2018. 

On September 22, the Hansi police suspended two policemen and booked three other persons on the charge of extorting money from Ramesh Kumar, a resident of the Bodha Ram locality in Hansi town, by threatening to implicate him in a rape case. Ramesh had complained to the Hansi SP that some policemen and three other persons forced him to give them Rs 10 lakh in March last year. He said that the policemen had visited his office several times to pressure him to give money on the pretext that a complaint of rape was pending against him for inquiry.

Kurukshetra highway extortionists 

Rinku, alleged kingpin of a honeytrap gang, was arrested in Kurukshetra. He used to blackmail affluent persons. CIA in-charge Kewal Singh said that the gang had allegedly extorted money from four persons. However, investigations revealed that at least four other persons were also targeted but they chose not to file police complaints. He added that the four accused were arrested in November last year while efforts were being made to nab a woman involved in the crime. The gang used to target commuters on national highways. “There have been complaints that a gang was active on the National Highway-44 and a woman posing as a hapless commuter tries to get a ride in a passing vehicle. When someone stops to offer her help, her accomplices appeared on the scene to extort money from him. The gang had extorted money from several persons and we are working to uncover the racket,” he said. Similarly, in the last six months, the Jind police had nabbed women in two cases for allegedly blackmailing men.

Cop, woman convicted

A lower court in Tosham town of Bhiwani district had convicted a policeman and a woman in a honeytrap case on July 26 last year. Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) Saurabh Gupta, while awarding a three-year jail term to ASI Shamsher and Kamlesh Devi, said that Kamlesh had taken advantage of her womanhood to trap and blackmail the complainant. “Rather than seeking protection of law meant for women, she tried to exploit the law to extort money from the complainant for about one and a half years. She thus deserves no leniency”. The court also criticised the police stating, “It’s a perfect case where a person, who has been given the responsibility of maintaining law and order and protect citizens, has committed a crime by misusing power vested in him. He has rather shaken the confidence of citizens in the police”. 

The convicted duo harassed trader Dharambir Jain for about one and a half years and extorted money from him. Jain had approached the police on May 15, 2015, with a complaint that a woman and an ASI were extorting money from him by threatening to get him implicated in a case of harassment. The woman had contacted him in December 2014 and lured him into accompanying her to a room. While the ASI, who was present in the room, demanded Rs 2 lakh threatening to implicate him in a case. The duo kept on extorting money from him and took around Rs 10.50 lakh. 

The court stated that the convicts would serve a three-year imprisonment under Section 388 (extortion) and a two-year jail term under Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC. They would undergo both terms, one sentence after the other, the court ordered.

Rs 4 crore extorted from Chandigarh businessman

On January 17, 2019, Dr Abdul Majid, Additional Sessions Judge, Yamunanagar, sentenced seven persons to a rigorous imprisonment of seven years each for extorting Rs 4 crore from a businessman of Chandigarh by levelling false charges of rape against him. Those convicted were Mahender Singh of Bhiwani, Mahavir Singh of Jind (both policemen); Varun Gupta of Yamunanagar, Mahima Kadiyan, alias Mahima Hooda, of Rohtak; Ram Niwas of Jind, Sonu of Yamunanagar and Sunil Dutta, alias Gullu, of Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh). 

On July 31, 2018, the Yamunanagar police arrested a woman, who was allegedly blackmailing a man by threatening to lodge a complaint of rape against him. The complainant, Chetan of Jagadhri Workshop, said that he was working as a medical representative for a company in 2014 and Sonu (name changed) was working as a receptionist in a private hospital of Yamunanagar. He came in contact with her and they became friends.

He alleged that after sometime she started blackmailing him and extorted more than Rs 4 lakh from him between 2014 and July 2018.

Chetan said that she demanded Rs 50,000 from him and threatened to lodge a complaint of rape against him if he didn’t pay money. He complained to the police which arrested her red-handed while accepting Rs 50,000 from him on July 31, 2018. However, Sonu got a rape case registered against Chetan in October 2018. 

A blot on society 

Om Prakash, a woman rights activist in Bhiwani, says that such incidents of false allegations made with ill-intention to extort money or frame rivals in criminal cases are a blot on society. “Such incidents have weakened the position of activists like me who have been fighting for justice for victim women,” he says while recalling the case of suicide by a 20-year-old victim in Bhiwani in August 2018. The aggrieved family had complained to the police that the girl was raped by a neighbouring youth and she committed suicide out of shame. They even produced a suicide note purportedly written by the victim herself. “As we started a dharna seeking justice for the victim, the police investigation brought out the truth that the girl’s family members had hanged her to take revenge on their neighbours. The accused turned out to be innocent but we faced an awkward situation in front of the police, which accused us of siding with the culprits,” he added.

Ascertaining honeytrap 

Preeti Bhardwaj, Vice-Chairperson, Haryana State Commission for Women, says that the commission receives unvarying complaints in honeytrap matters. It is at the stage of hearing that we ascertain whether the form, content and expression of the complaint matter come under the broad definition of term honeytrap, per se. It is only when both parties (alleged victim and accused) are summoned and during the course of inquiry, investigation, questioning and cross-questioning that we truly get the picture of a particular complaint having grey shades of being categorised as a honeytrap matter. 

She says, “At our end, we have duly formed an Online Complaint Performa having ‘Honeytrap matters’ as one of the features of the complaints. It shows that there have been regular complaints of this nature from Rohtak, Sonepat, Kurukshetra and Panchkula districts. Some serious complaints involved high-level government functionaries who had allegedly been accused of, implicated and targeted in illicit and false romantic affairs etc”. 

“The commission handled an archetypal case wherein social media platforms such as Facebook were (mis)used to settle a score, implicate, accuse and blackmail an IPS Officer. Our inquiry was strict and tight and all questions directed through a duly-prepared questionnaire exposed her (alleged victim woman) and her true demeanor emerged. She decided not to pursue the case with us in the first hearing itself. For the past one year, in the commission’s joint benches, there had been instances where the alleged victim’s relatives were caught red-handed extorting token money through unscrupulous, ignoble, and well-thought pressures. In such cases, our questionnaire for both parties serve as a litmus test to ascertain the truth of the allegations and know the veracity of such complaints before the commission,” adds Preeti. 

(With inputs from Vishal Joshi in Kurushetra and Shiv Kumar Sharma in Yamunanagar)


Retired IPS officer’s take

Rajbir Deswal, a retired IPS officer, says that prostitution is known to be one of the world’s oldest professions. The issue involves giving service, or taking it, conditionally for a consideration. The customer’s vulnerability is at times exploited by a smart-ass, orchestrated in conjunction with other operatives, including pimps etc. Those, who wield some power of intervention, or proceeding legally or socially against a potential candidate, do employ tricks and machinations to trap a willing ‘victim’, who doubles as a beneficiary too. At times, even the police or lawyers have been seen to be part of such a coterie. The issue has in its ambit not only lecherous, needy, exploited, and ravished women, but also those who offer themselves as bait for luring unsuspecting targets. They may not be doing it for self-gratification but for financial needs, fulfilling an obligation, or are being made use of by vested interests. The prosecution in such cases is not difficult as it's only after a raid, or some recovery, or testimony of witnesses, besides there being a complainant that the cases of honeytrap are detected.  

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