Three people, including a woman, were arrested

A 50-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh was rescued and three people, including a woman, were arrested for allegedly setting a honey trap and kidnapping him for ransom.

Lallu Chaubey, a resident of Lalitpur, has been held hostage in Jhansi since Thursday for a ransom of Rs 3 lakh, police said on Saturday.

The police launched an investigation after Mr Chaubey’s son lodged a complaint that he had been kidnapped and they received a ransom call.

Of the total ransom amount demanded, Rs 1 lakh has already been paid, the police officer said.

Several police teams were formed to find the man, and one policeman, posing as the victim’s son, went to pay the ransom.

One of the accused then took him to a place where the man was held hostage.

Several police teams then quickly reached there and rescued Mr Chaubey and the three accused – Kiran (35), Akhilesh Ahirwar (30) and Satish Singh Bundela (27) – were arrest.

During interrogation, the accused told the police that they used to first get a woman to call a man on the phone and ask him to meet her in Jhansi, where they held him hostage.

Many women were associated with their gang, police said.