Rourkela: Eight members of a criminal gang were arrested by the police in Odisha’s Rourkela city for looting people after luring them through a dating and meet-up app.
Explaining the modus operandi of the gang, Panposh SDPO Upasana Padhi said the accused were using a dating and meet-up app called ‘Grindr’ to scout for gullible and unsuspecting people and lure them for a meeting a particular spot.
From there, the accused would take the victims to an isolated place. Then, they would call all his accomplices to the spot and rob the person. The gang members would threaten the victims with weapons and rob them of their personal belongings. The accused also forcefully took the victims’ online banking details to transfer money.
The SDPO said the accused admitted to have committed over 10-12 such crimes in the recent past of which only two cases were reported at the Raghunathpali police station and one at the Brahmani Tarang police station over the last three days.
Investigation showed that the gang had looted a young victim of Rs 20,000 in a case registered at Brahmani Tarang police station, while in the ones at RN Pali police station, the victims were looted of Rs 25,000 and Rs 8,000.
A firearm, seven mobile phones and two 2-wheelers were seized from the accused, identified as Arjun Choudhary (24), Subrat Behera (21), Sonu Thakur (20), Manoj Kumar Behera (22), Anadi Charan Behera (45), Rajesh Rout (23) and Abhisek Sharma (25) and Jayadev Pradhan (24). All the accused belong to places within RN Pali, Brahmani Tarang and Lathikata police limits.
Rourkela police has issued an advisory and urged residents, especially youngsters and minors, to remain cautious and avoid sharing personal information or financial details while interacting with anyone on social media platforms.