By Zafar Abbas

New Delhi, Sep 26 (IANS): An anonymous sensual message at midnight may even lure a rational person into a trap meticulously set by a woman and her accomplices in order to blackmail the victim.

Gangs luring businessmen, doctors and other professionals into a honey trap appear to be spreading their tentacles in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR).

The menace has grown to an extent that earlier this week even the Delhi HC took stringent note of honey trapping incidents and asked the Delhi Police Commissioner to submit a report within four weeks regarding such cases.

In a recent case the Ghaziabad police arrested a man and a woman for honey trapping at least 20 people from Delhi-NCR.

The professionalism of the gang was evident when the Ghaziabad police recovered a police uniform from them.

The gang used to lure wealthy businessmen and well-heeled professionals after approaching them through Facebook.

After a series of sensual audio chats, the woman invited the target to a flat in Raj Nagar Extension. As soon as the two got into a compromising position, the other gang members barged in, wearing a police uniform along with a woman gang member.

They took photographs of the two and the not just took away all the money from the victim but also blackmailed and extorted money with this modus operandi.

In another case in July this year, the Crime Branch team of the Faridabad police nabbed three persons, including a woman, on charges of blackmailing a local physiotherapist after honey trapping him.

Sometimes, the fear of being exposed drives the victim to take extreme steps.

In a recent case in Faridabad police nabbed two people in August for allegedly blackmailing a 50-year-old businessman, who later killed himself by jumping into a river and left behind a note.

Police said the suspects had recorded a video of the businessman in an objectionable position, which they later used to blackmail him.

In Delhi too, several honey trap cases have been recently reported.

In a recent case, a 19-year-old girl came to Krishna Nagar police station in Shahdara district and lodged a sexual assault case against a local businessman.

Later, the investigation revealed that the girl was demanding money from the son of the person against whom she had levelled allegations.

During investigations, the victim was asked about her family. She introduced a girl as her elder sister and provided an address.

"When we probed further, we got to know that the victim had no siblings. The team got suspicious and the so-called 'sister' was interrogated. During sustained interrogation, she confessed that the girl wasn't her sister. She had along with two others hatched a criminal conspiracy to trap a businessman in a sexual harassment case," said Amit Sharma, DCP Shahdara.

In June, two men were arrested from Gadoli Khurd village in Gurugram's sector 10A for alleged involvement in honey trapping several real estate agents in the city and Delhi.

The racket seems to exploit the vulnerable victim's fear of loss of reputation as many do not even approach the police and end up paying extortion amounts to the honey trap gangs.