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This is an archive article published on February 8, 2024
Robbery, assault case | Using gay-dating app, gang targeted at least 5 men: Varanasi Police
Varanasi ACP (Bhelupur) Atul Anjaan Tripathi said, “We are trying to identify the other victims and will try to get written complaints from them too.”
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Police said they would also
invoke the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act against the accused.A DAY after the Varanasi Police busted a gang of five persons — including two students of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) — who would befriend gay men through the dating app Grindr, rob them and then blackmail them for months, senior officers said the three arrested accused have admitted to targeting at least five persons who were assaulted, robbed, and blackmailed.
The case came to light after a 32-year-old doctor in Varanasi registered a police complaint on February 4, alleging that a group of men had robbed him and were blackmailing him after befriending him on Grindr. The three accused – all in their early twenties – told the police that they had robbed at least four other men with the same modus operandi.
Varanasi ACP (Bhelupur) Atul Anjaan Tripathi said, “We are trying to identify the other victims and will try to get written complaints from them too.”
Police have identified a total of five accused. “We have arrested three accused and are looking for the other two,” said a senior police officer.
A senior officer, part of the investigation, said, “The gang members created profiles on the app with photos of one of the accused. After they befriend single, gay men, they would talk to them for a few weeks to gain their trust.”
The accused have been booked under sections 377 (unnatural offences), 347 (wrongful confinement to extort property or constrain to an illegal act), 384 (extortion), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, the police said.
Police said they would also invoke the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act against the accused.
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