Ahmedabad: Gay dating app used to thrash and rob

AHMEDABAD: Sola police of the city on Sunday caught three men for allegedly duping people after calling them through a gay dating application. The police officers probing the case said that at least 20 men were cheated of Rs 15 lakh by the accused.The cops took the action after two complainants approached them alleging that they were thrashed and duped of Rs 1 lakh each after being called at a secluded place in the Sola area of the city last week.In the first incident, Hitesh Vadher, a 40-year-old tailor from Chanakyapuri, said in his FIR filed on Saturday that he downloaded one gay dating app and used to talk with some male friends randomly.On February 8, Vadher got a friend request from a man named Ravi Patel on that app which he accepted and shared his cellphone number. After a while, Ravi Patel called him up and requested him to meet near Sola Bhagwat in the Sola area on that evening.Vadher went to meet Patel on February 8 evening. At that time, three men rushed there and asked Vadher on what he was doing there and began abusing him.The three men took Vadher to a secluded place where they thrashed him and forcibly transferred Rs 1 lakh from his phone through UPI payments.In the similar incident, Khodidas Patel, 42, a resident of Gota, also downloaded a gay dating application and got a request from one Ravi Patel.Patel called him up and requested to meet near Sola Bhagwat where three men rushed, thrashed Khodidas Patel and then forcibly took Rs 1 lakh from him.After the two complainants approached the police, the cops on the basis of technical surveillance located three of the four accused and caught them.The accused were identified Shivam Patel, a resident of Sarkhej, Chintan Dholakia, 22, a resident of Changodar and Mukund Prajapati, 21, a resident of Bavla, who confessed to cheating at least 20 men from the city.