A cricketer from Delhi who now plays for a Kolkata club was allegedly trapped through a “friendship app”, lured to meet a woman and forced to transfer Rs 60,000 to the e-wallet of a member of the racket, police said.
The police tracked down three men and a woman through the e-wallet and arrested them on Saturday. They have been charged under IPC sections of kidnapping, cheating, extortion and criminal conspiracy.
“The complainant started chatting with a woman through a friendship app after he came to Kolkata. The cricketer thought he was talking to a woman, but he was actually interacting with a group of three men. The gang lured him to meet a woman at a location in Baguiati,” said an officer of Baguiati police station.
Once the youth reached the spot, he found a woman and three men.
“The three men forced the youth to be intimate with the woman and photographed the two. They threatened to circulate the pictures if the cricketer did not pay up,” the officer said. The youth told the police that he was forced to transfer Rs 60,000 to the Paytm account of one of the men. They also allegedly snatched one of his cell phones and deleted the chat with them and the app from another phone. They also allegedly snatched his silver chain.
“The complainant was forced into a car and dropped somewhere in north Kolkata. He lodged a complaint with Baguiati police station on November 2,” the officer said.
The accused are as Shiba Singh and Shubhankar Biswas from Santosh Pally, and Rishab Chandra and Rina Majumdar from Jardabagan. The localities are under Baguiati police station.