A tale of sting operations, honey trap and ransom

KOCHI: Honey trap maybe the trending word this week, but it's not something new in Kochi. Palarivattom police had registered a case in January after director of Narada News Angel Tincy Abraham was blackmailed over a `honey trap' bid.
Police, who investigated the case, has now handed over the case to the crime branch. The news portal belongs to Mathew Samuel who had carried out Tehelka's sting operation West End in 2001.
The purported sting operation backfired after Abraham ­ who was involved in the sting operation ­ was forced to file a complaint that she was being blackmailed. Ernakulam North CI investigated her complaint. Abraham had said that she was blackmailed by a group of people who threatened to misinterpret an interview she had with a senior bureaucrat.
She had filed a complaint against three people ­ including one of her former colleagues ­ and gave a statement on January 5 confirming that she had interviewed a number of officials and ministers, in cluding a former chief secretary of state.
“There was no satisfactory evidence to prove any kind of involvement by senior bureaucrats. As per statements given by some journalists, the blackmailers didn't have strong evidence,“ said the investigating officer.
An FIR was lodged by Palarivattom police against three persons including Ram Kumar, an associate of Abraham and Mathew Samuel in the sting operation. Freelance journalists Baiju John and Mahesh Mohan were the other accused.
Meanwhile, sources said that the accused men had claimed that Abraham received Rs 5 crore by blackmailing senior bureaucrats. A senior police officer said that Angel was blackmailed by another news portal who discovered the `honey-trap attempt.' “They wanted a cut and blackmailed her saying that they would publish videos and audios that would prove that she was blackmailing others. They asked her to pay Rs 2 crore,“ said the officer on condition of anonymity.
“They said through phone calls and messages that they would misinterpret the interview and publish it online. To stop doing so, they wanted me to pay Rs 2 crore through my boss Mathew Samuel,“ Angel told police.
Her boss Samuel had exposed the corruption in defense that led to the ouster of BJP president Bangaru Laxman. Narada news also did a sting operation on TMC leaders. Several top leaders of Trinamool Congress, including Mukul Roy, Subrata Mukherjee and Farhad Hakim, were seen taking bribes from a fictitious company in a video aired by the portal before polls in West Bengal in 2016.
Sources said that Abraham was trying a similar sting operation in Kerala when her identity was com promised; she had to abort her mission. Police said that the complainant, who had earlier worked with Tehelka, was recognized by one of the persons she was acquainted with during her stint with the magazine.
At that time of the investigation, the audio clip of a phone conversation (reportedly between Mathew Samuel and Angel) surfaced on social media. There were references that a senior bureaucrat was dallying with an `Angel'. Police investigating the allegations said that Abraham denied taking money.
The 30-year-old Pathanamthitta native had told police that she was to be part of a sting operation before assembly polls. However, she didn't reveal details of the sting operation.
In January, 2016, the state unit of Hanuman Sena had filed a complaint to the then DGP TP Senkumar seeking a probe against a senior bureaucrat who had allegedly paid money to settle a honey trap case.