Man lured via gay dating app, beaten, stripped and extorted of Rs 31,000
A man from Gujarat's Surendranagar district was allegedly lured via a gay dating app, beaten, stripped and extorted of Rs 31,000 by a seven-member gang
A man from Gujarat's Surendranagar district was allegedly lured via a gay dating app, beaten, stripped and extorted of Rs 31,000 by a seven-member gang that threatened to leak his nude photos and videos online, police said. The accused allegedly befriended the 44-year-old through the "Polo" app, called him to an abandoned house on the outskirts of Surendranagar city and then blackmailed him after recording obscene content. Read Full Story According to the police, he downloaded the dating app and began chatting with strangers online.
During one such interaction, he became acquainted with a group of individuals who gradually gained his trust and later invited him to meet them. When the man arrived at the house behind Surendranagar Medical College, he allegedly found seven men waiting for him. The accused then surrounded him, assaulted him, forcibly stripped him and recorded obscene photographs and videos, police said. The gang allegedly extorted Rs 31,000 in cash and threatened to circulate the videos on social media if he failed to comply or informed anyone about the incident.
Traumatised by the ordeal, the man later approached the police and lodged a complaint. Based on the complaint, police launched an investigation and, using technical surveillance and local intelligence inputs, tracked down and arrested all seven accused allegedly involved in the crime. The arrested men have been identified as Sahil Chauhan, Shakti Bajipara, Bhargav Parmar, Sameer Kodia, Fardeen Shaikh, Sameer Dewan and Ankit Tyagi. Police said they have recovered the entire amount allegedly extorted from the victim.
Preliminary investigations revealed that one of the accused, Shakti Bajipara, is a repeat offender and has previously been booked in two serious honeytrap-related cases. Investigators suspect the gang may have used social media platforms and dating applications to identify and target victims before luring them to isolated locations and blackmailing them with compromising photographs and videos. Ends
The BriefWire