Surat: Five persons, including three minors, were arrested for allegedly extorting Rs 70,000 from a 27-year-old textile unit manager after luring him through a gay dating app.According to the complaint, the victim came in contact with a man identifying himself as Mihir on a dating app. After exchanging messages, the two agreed to meet at a mango orchard in Laskana. When the victim reached the spot, four other persons arrived and allegedly extorted money from him.Police said the victim works as a manager in a textile unit in Laskana and had downloaded the gay dating app Grindr on his mobile phone about five months ago. On Dec 27, he received a message from a person named Mihir. After a brief chat, Mihir asked him to come near Shyam Mandir. Upon reaching there, Mihir shared a live location directing him to a mango orchard near Saagwadi.Once inside the orchard, Mihir led the victim further in, where four accomplices confronted him. The accused allegedly threatened the victim, accusing him of drug consumption and involvement in illegal activities. They snatched his mobile phone and wallet and assaulted him to obtain his phone passwords.Police said the accused forced the victim to share his UPI credentials and transferred Rs 68,000 in multiple transactions to the bank account of one of the accused. They also allegedly took cash from his wallet.Before letting him go, the accused threatened the victim not to report the incident and returned his mobile phone in a switched-off condition. When the victim turned it on later, he found that the chat history and the dating app had been deleted.After returning home, the victim informed his brother, who accompanied him to the Laskana police station to lodge a complaint.
