Honey-trapping racket: fresh case of human trafficking filed

Aarti Dayal and four other accused in the honey-trapping case were booked for trafficking and sexual exploitation on Tuesday, after another accused woman's father alleged that they pushed her into the racket.

In a related development, the head of the special investigation team formed to probe the case was replaced.

The police registered a fresh FIR against five accused on a complaint of the father of a 19-year-old girl who is among those arrested, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ruchi Vardhan Misra.

In Bhopal, officials said the SIT will be headed by Additional Director General of Police Sanjeev Shami, instead of Inspector General (IG), CID, D Sriniwas Verma.

SSP Misra told reporters in Indore that on the complaint of Hiralal Yadav, father of Monica Yadav, other five members of the racket were charged under IPC sections 370 (human trafficking), 370-A (sexual exploitation of human trafficking victim) and section 120-b (criminal conspiracy).

"The gang preyed on girls from the rural background and pushed them into this racket," Misra said.

As per her father's complaint, a man befriended Monica over phone, and later introduced her to Aarti Dayal, Shweta Jain and others through social media.

His daughter was a meritorious student and had come to Bhopal to appear for the army recruitment test, but the gang trapped her in its net, he alleged.

Besides the man who used to talk to Monica on phone, a driver's name too has cropped up during the investigation, and a hunt has been launched to arrest the duo, Misra said.

The sleuths were also searching for another woman connected with the gang, she added.

The SIT includes Misra, two superintendents of police, an additional SP, two City Superintendents of Police (CSPs) and an inspector.

Dayal (29) and Monica Yadav will continue to be in police custody till September 28. Omprakash Kori (45), who worked as a driver, and three members of the alleged racket, namely, Shweta Vijay Jain (39), Shweta Swapnil Jain (48) and Barkha Soni (34), are now in judicial custody.

They gang allegedly entrapped its victims using attractive women and blackmailed them after shooting videos of intimate moments.

The arrests were made last week after an official of the Indore Municipal Corporation complained to the police that he was being blackmailed for Rs 3 crore.