Five held for robbing victim using gay website

The Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) has arrested five persons for robbing a man at his own home here in Vastrapur after contacting him using a gay website.

Police said that the accused have targeted many people in several states in similar fashion and in all those cases the victims, being gay, never lodged complaint fearing social stigma.

On 26th August, the Vastrapur police station had registered an FIR. The victim had told the police that four unknown persons had barged into his house and made away with valuables and withdrew Rs 50,000 from ATM cards. The DCB officials were roped in to investigate the case. The officers found that the four suspects had stayed at nearby Royal Palace hotel, left for Vadodara and then flew to Delhi the next day.

The investigation led the officers to Noida from where they arrested three brothers- Ajay, 20, Rajkumar, 24, and Vijay Sharma, 23, originally from Muftiwada, Shikarpur, Bulandshahr- along Mukul Gaur, 21, and Joni M Saini, 24, who are also from Bulandshahr.

They were arrested on Saturday night and were brought to Ahmedabad on Sunday. All of them have been handed over to Vastrapur police. The main accused is said to be Ajay, who used to work in a massage centre in Delhi and later formed this gang with his two brother and other co-accused. The sixth accused has been identified as Rahul Saini is still at large.

"The accused have confessed to have robbed many victims using the same modus operandi. The victims would book gay service using Grindr App. No victim would go to lodge complaint out of fear and social stigma," DCB officials said. Even in Vastrapur police case, the victim didn't tell the cops how these accused had barged at his home. It was the accused who told the police in the interrogation.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCB, Deepan Bhandran told DH, "During the interrogation, the accused have revealed that they have robbed people in places like Noida, Ghaziabad, Kota, Indore, Mathura, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. As far as we know, there is not a single FIR that has revealed how the gang was targeting men using the gay application. Even in Vastrapur case, the FIR doesn't mention this angle."