Delhi police has arrested four persons for allegedly trapping people by approaching them on a dating app meant for the LGBTQ community and later extorting money from them by threatening to share their private videos with their families.  The accused were identified as Arun Kumar (22), Vishal Kohli (24), Rajesh Kumar (42) and Anuj (21).

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Rajesh Deo said the accused persons used to make fake profiles on Grindr app, chat with the targets to get friendly with them and lure them into taking part in sexual activities. They would invite the victims to select locations and record them in compromising positions. Later, they would threaten to share these videos with the family members and friends of the victims and demand money from them, he said.

The matter came to light after one of the victims lodged a complaint, the police said. According to the complainant, he met a man through Grindr and met him at Vinobapuri metro station on April 24. From there, the accused took him to a room. While they were talking to each other, two men barged into the room and started making his video after forcing him to remove his clothes.The accused threatened to post video online and forced complainant to pay `2 lakh, the police said.

Using technical surveillance, the accused persons — Arun Kumar and Vishal Kohli — were traced to Loni, Ghaziabad and were arrested from there. Later, Rajesh Kumar was arrested from Shahbad Dairy, they said.

The fourth accused, Anuj, was arrested in connection with another case in which he and his associates managed to extort `33,000 from a man, the police said. They also thrashed the victim and forcibly performed oral sex on him, they said.