DEHRADUN: The Haridwar Government Railway Police (GRP) has arrested six individuals accused of looting members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community.
The suspects allegedly posed as LGBTQ individuals themselves on Grindr, a popular dating app for the LGBTQ community. It is the fourth such case in the country so far.
The arrests, made in early September, followed confessions from the accused, who admitted to victimising at least seven members of the LGBTQ community in Haridwar. They lured their victims through the app under the pretext of meeting them.
Deputy inspector general (DIG) of GRP, P Renuka Devi, said that the gang's activities came to light when a member of the LGBTQ community from Bihar filed a complaint via the Uttarakhand CM helpline. The complaint was then transferred to the Haridwar GRP police station in August.
According to the police, the victim had come to Haridwar for medical treatment at Patanjali in May and had previously interacted with one of the accused on Grindr. The accused had created a fake profile, claiming to be part of the LGBTQ community.
"On reaching Haridwar, the victim met accused Ravikant at the railway station. Ravikant took the victim to an isolated location in the city, where other gang members were present. The accused assaulted the victim and looted valuables, including cash worth Rs 30,000 and a gold chain," the DIG added.
"Based on the complaint, six accused, including four residents of Haridwar and two residents of Muzaffarnagar, were arrested following an investigation. During the interrogation, they confessed to committing a similar crime against six more members of the LGBTQ community using the same app. We are soon going to take action against them under the Gangster Act too," Devi added. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar said, "Police are taking necessary actions against the accused in the crimes against the LGBTQ community. We are ensuring that they exercise their rights as any other citizen."
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