The gang members were accused of baiting men through online dating apps by showing them beautiful girls and then calling them to Mosh Pub in Madhapur.
The Madhapur police today apprehended seven persons identified as Aakash Kumar, Suraj Kumar, Akshat Narula, Tarun, Shiv Raj Nayak, Rohith Kumar and Cherkupally Sai Kumar, in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
The persons were accused of baiting men through online dating apps by showing them beautiful girls and then calling them to Mosh Pub, Madhapur, where they would get the men to drink expensive liquor in the company of the girls. Once the bills reached huge numbers, the girls would disappear, and the bill amounts would be shared between the pub owner, the accused and the girls.
The police seized eight mobile phones and two four-wheelers from the possession of the accused. They also registered a case, Cr No 633/2024, under sections 406, 419 and 420 of the IPC in the Madhapur police station against them.
The police said that the accused had a nightclub called Devils Night Club in Delhi. Their modus operandi was recruiting girls, registering them in online dating apps, and getting men to chat with them. The chatting in the name of girls would be done by one person from the gang. They would then select pubs which were in losses and whose Google ratings were very poor - they would invite the baited men to such pubs, with whose owners they struck deals. In this particular pub (Mosh), the accused operated for 45 days, especially over six weekends, and duped 50 to 60 customers of about Rs 30 lakh cumulatively, and shared the money among themselves.
The operation was replicated in Bangalore and Hyderabad after being started in Delhi, and the scamsters were about to take it to Nagpur, too.
The police seized eight smartphones, a Thar car and a Kia car from the arrested men. The seized property was worth about Rs 40,00,000 cumulatively.
The public are being requested by the police to dial 100 or call the anti-drug abuse helpline 9490617182 or text the Cyberabad Whatsapp no 9490617444 if they encounter such crimes. The identity of the complainants will be kept confidential.