5 teens held in capital city for 'extorting' men befriended on dating app

BHUBANESWAR: Five teenagers, four of them juveniles, were apprehended by Lingaraj police on Wednesday on charges of extorting money from people after befriending them on an LGBTQ dating app. Police said all the five youths are Plus II students of different colleges in the capital city.
Police sources said the teenagers became friends with some persons on the app a few months back.One of the teenagers introduced himself as an IT professional and befriended a fashion designer. They decided to go on a date on October 5.
The fashion designer met the student near Mausi Maa Chowk. The victim was taken to a nearby house where the student's associates were already present. They assaulted the youth, undressed him and clicked his nude photographs.
They forced him to transfer Rs 56,000 from his UPI number to one of their accounts, a senior police officer said. The gang laid another trap and invited a medical student for a meeting near Garage Chowk on October 9.
This time also, the victim was taken to a nearby room where he faced the same fate as the fashion designer.
The gang members first forced him to transfer some money from his UPI account and later took him to an ATM counter to withdraw cash with his debit card. police claimed the man lost about Rs 1.15 lakh.
"We have arrested the juveniles in conflict with law. They were produced before the juvenile justice board," assistant commissioner of police (zone-II) Girija Shankar Chakrabarty said. "The gang members. do not have a criminal past," Chakrabarty added.