Social Media Romance Scam: Three Arrested in Pune After Gang Extorts ₹70,000 from Young Man
Social Media Romance Scam: Three Arrested in Pune After Gang Extorts ₹70,000 from Young Man
The rise of social media scams has taken another alarming turn in Pune, where a young man fell victim to an online extortion scheme orchestrated by a gang exploiting Instagram friendships. According to police, the culprits initially built trust with the victim by pretending to develop a romantic connection before forcibly demanding money.
The incident came to light after a 28-year-old man reported that he had formed an acquaintance with a 17-and-a-half-year-old girl on Instagram. Their online chats quickly evolved into a close friendship, and she soon expressed a desire to meet him in person. The meeting was arranged in the Katraj area, after which the girl suggested visiting Katraj Ghat.
On the way, the girl asked him to stop his motorcycle at a specific location, where her accomplices, who had been waiting in hiding, suddenly appeared. The gang threatened and physically assaulted the victim before taking him to Yevalewadi. There, they verbally abused him and demanded ₹70,000, leveraging the threat of filing a POCSO complaint. When the victim could not pay the full amount, the gang forcefully seized ₹10,000 and continued to harass him over the phone for the balance.
Distressed by the harassment, the young man approached Bharti Vidyapeeth Police Station and lodged a formal complaint. Following the complaint, police registered a case against the minor girl and four to five others, successfully arresting three of the accused while continuing the search for the remaining individuals. Assistant Police Inspector Thorat is supervising the investigation.
In a separate development, Pune’s Economic Offences Wing arrested 70-year-old Prabhakar Shetty from Udupi district in Karnataka. Shetty was an accomplice of fraudster Rupesh Chaudhary, who impersonated an Intelligence Bureau officer and conned approximately 15 people out of ₹17 crore by promising MHADA flats. Chaudhary, the primary accused, had passed away earlier, and businessman Aslam Qureshi had filed the complaint in this matter.
