BENGALURU: A 51-year-old businessman on Thursday filed a case of an alleged honey trap against the sister of one of his women employees and her associates at Subramanyanagar police station. He stated that the accused, who are still at large, had allegedly extorted Rs 4 lakh from him after blackmailing him.
A senior police officer said that Manikanth (name changed), a resident of Rajajinagar, is a vegetable merchant in RMC Yard. In his complaint, Manikanth stated that he had hired the Priyadarshini, a resident of Tamil Nadu, as an accountant in 2016. Her sister, Nadiya, often came to his shop to assist her.
Nadiya had taken some money from him and failed to return it. When he asked her to repay the money, she managed to take a video of him in an intimate moment in her mobile phone and started blackmailing him. She threatened him saying she would share the video on social media and with his family members.
Nadiya also shared the video with Bharathi Nayak, who is said to be the founder of a women’s rights organisation. They called Manikanth and collected Rs 5 lakh which included a bank cheque of Rs 1 lakh. Bharathi had taken Rs 3 lakh while sharing Rs 2 lakh with Nadiya.
When the bank cheque bounced, Bharathi called Manikanth to a food court in Orion Mall in Yeshavanthapura in June 2018 and demanded Rs 5 lakh further and threatened him saying that the video would be shared with local news channels. A scared Manikanth discussed the issue with his friends and then decided to file a case.
“Based on preliminary investigation, the sisters harassed Manikanth mentally. When he went to the food court, Bharathi’s son Sagar Manikanth carrying a hidden camera with him. Sagar snatched the camera and broke it and threatened him saying the video would be viral in social media immediately,” the police said. The police said they gathered CCTV footage at the mall to verify facts as part of investigation.
“Nadiya, Bharathi and Sagar are absconding after the case was registered. However, Manikanth has not accused his employee Priyadarshini in the complaint,” the police added.