Swipe right for trouble: Dating apps new playground for criminals?

The concept of bumping into people on an app, and then meeting them in person, was never as popular as it is today. But such ephemeral pleasures, of meeting someone new, can also expose people to serious dangers.

The recent case of a teacher in the city being targeted by two brothers, who stole ₹3 lakh from him after going to his house, only highlights the risks involved with dating apps. The teacher had invited one of the brothers to his house after meeting him on Grindr.

Even though the tuition teacher’s case was worked out and the two brothers were arrested, several such crimes, involving online dating, have taken place in the recent past. In many of the cases, the offenders were not from the city and had been living here temporarily.

Deputy commissioner of police (Crime) Kamlesh Kumar Dixit said the issue was becoming a challenge, necessitating the need for mandatory tenant verification.

It’s a date, it’s a murder!

Only last August, city police arrested traffic constable, Ravinder Pal Singh, 35, for the murder of a 21-year-old that had taken place seven months prior.

While initially assuming it to be an open-and-shut case, Cantt police booked several of the youngster’s friends and unidentified persons under IPC sections 302 and 201, and the relevant provisions of the SC/ST Act. The youngster’s body was found on January 14, 2024.

“When CCTV footages were scanned, his friends’ role in his murder was ruled out. It was head constable Ravinder Pal Singh who murdered him. Further probe revealed that the youngster was active on Grindr. A few days before the crime, both got in touch with each other on the app. On January 13, they had an encounter and later got into a fight. The accused spiked his drinks with a poisonous substance and made him drink it, leading to his immediate death. To hide his crime, the cop placed the body on a railway track near the victim’s residence,” DCP (East) Shashank Singh had said then.

Wanted a fella, got racketeers

In November 2023, city police busted a gang of men who targeted other men in the city in the name of romantic pleasures or body massages. The gang members, who hailed from Patna, were living in Lucknow in rented accommodation. One of the victims, a resident of Indira Nagar, was thrashed and robbed of ₹80,000 and his phone in a hotel in Vibhuti Khand. The victim had planned a meet-up with a man at the hotel after talking to him on Grindr. When he went to the room, he was greeted by four men who threatened to ‘expose’ him if he didn’t pay them up.

The same group had targeted a man working as a coordinator for IGNOU at JNPG college by calling him in a hotel room in Charbagh.

Acid attack on partner

In January 2023, a 26-year-old Gomti Nagar man and his mother were attacked with acid by two men who came at the former’s door. Later, police arrested three men, one of whom was the man’s partner for eight years and worked as an interior designer in Haryana. The Haryana youth orchestrated the attack with the help of two of his cousins.