Twelve-member honey trapping gang including former cop arrested in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: The Musheerabad Police arrested a 12-person gang, including a former cop and two women, for honey-trapping victims, extorting them and robbing people by threatening them with toy guns.

The police identified the former cop as Mohd Viquar Mehdi, who worked as a
home guard and was dismissed for being involved in robberies and extortions.
Mehdi and Mohd Imran Khan formed the gang, roping in Ahmed Rizwan, who runs a news portal.

The police said they were involved in four incidents since July 2022.

Mehdi and Imran roped in two women, Syeda Uzma Fathima and Shaik Sameera, who would contact phone numbers of eateries and other establishments, and seek to meet the persons at an isolated location to make a deal.

After luring the victims, Rizwan would appear at the location claiming to be
a journalist and pretending to record video footage of the victims with the
two women. He would threaten them to pay up, failing which he would threaten
to publish the video on his news website and social media platforms.

If the victims continued to resist, the gang members used toy pistols and
knives to rob them of money, the police said.

In four instances, they extorted and robbed around Rs. 12.5 lakh, with cases
reported at Musheerabad, Santosh Nagar and Asif Nagar police stations.

The police were able to identify Mehdi during CCTV footage checks and
questioned him, following which they arrested all the gang members.

DCP of Central Zone, M. Rajesh Chandra, said they were produced in court on
Monday. Further, cash, toy pistols and knives were also recovered from their
custody, he said.