Punjab: LGBTQ member falls victim to job fraud on community app

AMRITSAR: A person belonging to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) community has filed a fraud complaint, alleging that another member of the community duped him by falsely promising to secure a banking job through a social networking platform specifically created for LGBTQ community.


Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), North, Varinder Singh Khosa informed on Friday that Bipin Kumar, a resident of Jahangirpur village in Sheohar district of Bihar, who currently resides in Ajit Nagar, Amritsar, has admitted of his sexual orientation as a gay, told police that he had been utilizing the Grindr app to connect with fellow members of the LGBTQ community.

Khosa said that the victim informed the police that on August 16 and 17, he encountered a person on Grindr who identified himself as Karandeep Singh,alias Karan and during their interactions, Karan allegedly promised Bipin that he would assist him in securing a job at HDFC Bank.

Grindr is reported to be a social networking app for LGBTQ community.

Till now, Bipin had transferred a total of Rs 23,600 to Karan through a mobile payment app. However, Karan persistently kept on demanding more funds from Bipin, which raised suspicions in Bipin's mind regarding the possibility of fraud being perpetrated by Karan.

Khosa informed that according to Bipin, Karan again demanded Rs 7,000 from him and he (Bipin)decided to personally handover the money to Karan at Khandae Wala Chowk, Majithia Road, Amritsar.

"We laid a trap with our police party and arrested Karan and recovered a mobile phone and 5 SIM cards from his possession," said Khosa .

The initial investigations revealed that Karan was a resident of village Buggae in Tarn Taran district, said Khosa, adding that upon examination of his mobile phone, the police found that he had been in communion with numerous persons but would often delete his chat.".

It was unclear whether Karan himself was gay or not, he said.