3 women arrested in Kolkata red light area for confining man, extorting Rs 89k online

Three women were arrested by the Kolkata Police on charges of confining a man in a room at a red light area in the northern part of the citys Sonagachi and extorting Rs 89,000 from him through online transactions, an officer said on Monday.

Three women were arrested by the Kolkata Police on charges of confining a man in a room at a red light area in the northern part of the city's Sonagachi and extorting Rs 89,000 from him through online transactions, an officer said on Monday. The arrested women were suspected to be sex workers of Sonagachi, considered the largest red light district in Asia. According to the complaint lodged at Burtolla Police Station, the incident occurred when the victim was walking along a road in the area. He accused the three women of forcibly taking him into a room, snatching his mobile phone and demanding money. ''When the complainant told them he did not have much cash, he was allegedly assaulted. They then threatened to make video calls to his family to show that he was inside a brothel,'' the police officer said. The accused allegedly pressured the man to transfer money online and even coerced him into revealing his ATM PIN, police said. Using this method, the women reportedly transferred Rs 89,000 in phases from the victim's bank account to their own accounts. The victim managed to escape from the premises and immediately approached the local police station to lodge a complaint. Acting on the complaint, police launched an investigation and accompanied the complainant to the location where the incident had taken place. ''He identified the room first and later confirmed the identity of the three women,'' he said, adding that they were arrested on the spot. Police said such incidents were not new in the Sonagachi area and similar cases of cheating and extortion had been reported earlier. ''We are investigating whether the accused were involved in similar crimes in the past and if there are more victims,'' the officer added.

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