Video editor: Sandeep Suman
Nineteen-year-old Priya Chandra* (name changed) belongs to a small village in Madhya Pradesh. On 18 September, she was arrested with four other women – Aarti Dayal, Shweta Vijay Jain, Shweta Swapnil Jain and Barkha Soni, in connection with the curious honey trap scandal which has shaken the Madhya Pradesh government as the investigation has yielded the names of several high-profile BJP and Congress politicians as well as serving IAS and IPS officers.
“I feel my daughter was framed by the gang. She was good at studies and in sports... She always wanted to work.”Priya’s Father
Father Registered Human Trafficking Case
Priya’s father, a farmer, earns only Rs 6,000 a month, an income too meagre to fund her higher education. He said Priya wanted to continue her further studies in Bhopal and contacted Aarti, one of the accused, on Facebook in April this year, as she believed her NGO might help her out.
“Aarti Dayal came to our house. She said, ‘Priya is a very good girl, I will help her in further studies, don’t keep her at home, we will also help her get a job.’ Aarti told us that they helped the poor and their families for a brighter future. But I refused because we didn’t know her. But Priya* didn’t agree. 10-15 days later, she left for Bhopal.”Priya’s Father
Priya’s statement under Section 164 of the IPC has been recorded before the Magistrate which will help her become an approver in the honey trap case. The police has also registered a separate FIR for human trafficking based on Priya’s father’s complaint.
“Police told me that Priya has been trapped by the gang. She will be released from jail in a few days. Police said that she has become an approver and the case against her will be over. Police told me to get a human trafficking case registered.”Priya’s Father
‘Priya Too Scared to Disclose Anything’: Village Sarpanch
In April 2019, Priya left for Bhopal to stay with Aarti Dayal. Although she visited the village a few times, she didn’t share the truth about her life in Bhopal with her family.
(She said) that she had been framed by the gang in a way where she wouldn’t be allowed to visit the village, and whenever she did come home, she was asked by the accused to not speak to her parents about anything. She was trapped and blackmailed.”Village Sarpanch
Whenever she visited her home, Priya gave her parents some money. In fact, when her father went to Bhopal once, she told him she helped Aarti with some clerical work in addition to attending college and coaching classes.
“She came home 2-3 times after leaving for Bhopal. Every time she came here she gave us Rs 2,000-3,000. I went to Bhopal once. I went to the place where she was residing... It was a pakka house. She was staying with Aarti Dayal and another girl. She told me she attended college from 9 am to 2 pm and then went for coaching for an hour. She didn’t tell us the reality. I asked her what Aarti did. She said that she gets big contracts and owns big firms. She said she did some clerical work for Aarti.”Priya’s Father
The police claims several young girls from poor families were allegedly coerced into prostitution by the gang. Their modus operandi was to get in touch with politicians and bureaucrats, shoot videos of them secretly, either via spy cam or mobile phones, and later, blackmail them for money and other favours.
The police claims to have unearthed many obscene videos on the hard disk and phones seized during the raid at the accused’s premises. Investigation into the matter is underway.
The massive honey trap scandal was busted after an Indore Municipal Corporation engineer approached the police claiming he was being blackmailed to the tune of Rs 3 crore over objectionable video clips shot by the accused.
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