Couple among 4 held for honey-trap robbery in Vizianagaram

Visakhapatnam: The Vizianagaram district police on Saturday arrested four people, including a couple, for honey-trapping, attacking and robbing a gold chain, and trying to extort money from a 28-year-old after blackmailing him with WhatsApp messages. The arrested were identified as P Kiran and his wife, P Usha, both natives of the Pendurthi locality in Vizag, B Yernibabu and P Prasad. The police said the couple examined the profiles of some people on social media and selected some people. Usha used to send messages and make calls to those selected for honey trapping. One youngster VS Ramesh from Vizag city received WhatsApp calls and messages from Usha.A few days after chatting, Usha invited Ramesh for a casual meeting at Alamanda market under Jami mandal in Vizianagaram district on Feb 14. When Ramesh had gone to Alamanda to meet Usha, Kiran and his friends, Yernibabu and Prasad threatened him with a knife and blackmailed him with the WhatsApp messages with Usha. The trio attacked Ramesh and robbed his gold chain (18 gms) and demanded that he pay Rs 80,000 and threatened him with dire consequences if he revealed it to anyone.Based on the complaint from the victim, the Jami police registered a case on March 3 and identified the accused persons and nabbed the gang. The police also recovered the stolen gold chain, one bike, and mobile phones from the gang.