Palanpur: The Banaskantha Local Crime Branch (LCB) arrested three men for allegedly honey-trapping a gov school teacher and extorting Rs 1.15 lakh from him by threatening to implicate him in a false rape case.According to police, the victim, who is currently teaching at a school in a village in the Danta, had earlier worked at a private school in Palanpur. His former colleague, identified as Maheboobkhan Baloch, allegedly hatched the conspiracy with others to trap him.Police said the accused used a woman, identified as Asha Sharma, to befriend the teacher and take him to an isolated location in the Balaram forest. When the woman allegedly attempted to get intimate with him, other accused arrived at the spot and threatened to implicate him in a rape case. They demanded Rs 5 lakh and forcibly collected Rs 1 lakh from him.The accused later demanded another Rs 50,000, of which Rs 15,000 was extorted from the victim. On Sept 3, another accused, Mujahidkhan alias Shafaj Mustafakhan Tunvar, allegedly posing as a journalist, sent the teacher a news link carrying a headline alleging that he had had raped a woman in the Balaram forest. allegedly demanded Rs 5 lakh and threatened to get a rape case registered and defame the teacher on social media, said DM Rathod, inspector, LCB.The victim subsequently informed his family about the repeated extortion attempts and later approached the police.The LCB arrested Maheboobkhan Baloch, Salimkhan Baloch, and Narsinh Raval. They were handed over to Palanpur East police for further investigation.Police have declared Asha Sharma, Shravan Raval, the driver of the Eeco car, and Mujahidkhan Tunvar wanted in the case.Police said Salimkhan and Narsinh have previously been booked in sextortion cases.A case has been registered at Palanpur East police station under relevant sections of BNS, including provisions relating to extortion, criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation.
