Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (RJP)

Bengaluru, Jan 14: Vijayanagara police here have busted a honey trap racket and arrested two men and three women.

Anand Achar (43), Ravikumar (42) with three women are the persons arrested.

As per the details available with the police, the culprits advertised through a website called Locanto with explicit pictures inviting for sex. The advertisement also contained mobile numbers to avail the services.

Dinesh (name changed) responded to the advertisement. A woman asked him to come to the Vijayanagara bus stand. When Dinesh reached the bus stand, the woman called him to a nearby lodge.

Within a few minutes, five persons entered the lodge and threatened Dinesh that they had the pictures of the sexual act and would complain to the police. They also snatched Rs 10,000 from Dinesh. This information was provided to the police by Dinesh.

Police seized a laptop, mobile and some records from the arrested persons. It is said that teh culprits have 25 to 30 complaints against them.

Four more members of the gang are said to be at large. Police have launched a search hunt for them.

A similar hi-tech prostitution racket was busted in Mangaluru two days ago by the city crime branch (CCB) when they raided a brothel in the city and arrested three persons. The arrested men are Preetham (30) from Manjeshwar, Sunil (22) from Gurpur, and Nagaraj (28) from Kankanady, who hails from Hangal in Haveri district.

The police said that the three were running a prostitution racket in the city through internet by teh way of advertisement in Locanto website.

A few women too were taken into custody and handed over to women's rehabilitation centre. Eight cell phones, Rs 6,700 in cash, a Tata Safari car, and a Maruti Alto car were taken into possession with the total value of Rs 8, 97,700.

The accused as well as the confiscated items were handed over to Kadri police station for further investigation, it is gathered.