How two men used a dating app to lure, assault and rob women in Delhi

Delhi Police arrested the duo on June 18.

The matter came to light after a 35-year-old woman filed a complaint on May 31, stating that she was assaulted and robbed by a man she had met on the app and his friend. The woman — who lives with her two children in West Delhi after separation from her husband — stated in the complaint that she interacted with a man, who went by the name Jatin, on the app for two to three days before inviting him to her house, police said.

According to the FIR, Jatin showed up with his friend around 12 pm. “While the two of us were interacting, his friend waited in the other room. Later, my son came to me to inform me that the friend had been taking a tour of my house while talking over the phone,” the woman said in the complaint.

Not making much of it, the woman agreed to meet Jatin again at her place the same night. Jatin showed up with his friend around 10.30 pm. While the trio was interacting, Jatin’s friend suddenly grabbed the woman by her throat and hit her in the face, said police. They then tied her hands, legs and mouth with tape, and proceeded to rob her of a gold chain, her mobile phone, and Rs 5,000 in cash before fleeing.

An FIR was registered against the accused under relevant IPC sections. As a police team analysed CCTV footage from nearby areas, it found that the duo had reached the woman’s house in a Creta car, the number plate on which turned out to be fake.

“We found out that the duo had been using mobile phones of their victims to lure their next target… This app takes four days to verify the account of a new member. So, the men would create their accounts and find their targets. And then, rob them and delete the account before the verification could be completed. They would then make a fresh account and carry out the same process again,” said Ankit Singh, DCP (Dwarka).

Police later got in touch with another victim — a resident of Rohini who said she was robbed in a similar fashion on March 23. Earlier that day, the two accused also stole six gold chains from a jewellery store in Rohini Sector 3, police said.

Police arrested Rahul outside Safdarjung Hospital, and Vijay, who went by the name Jatin, from Vipin Garden.

“They told us that they have committed similar crimes in Gurgaon, but we have not received any such complaint so far,” the DCP said.

“Many women probably don’t want to come forward and share their ordeal due to shame… many such victims only file a theft case, leaving out details,” DCP Singh added.