Teen boy rescued after being kidnapped by gang he met on Grindr
Grindr (Getty)
A 24-year-old man was arrested and two others are wanted in connection with the kidnapping of a 14-year-old Grindr user.
A teenage boy was rescued by police in Mathura, India, on Sunday, September 15. He was abducted by three men, including one he had befriended on Grindr.
The boy arranged to meet with the 24-year-old man through the dating app on Saturday evening according to The Times of India.
After convening at a pre-arranged meeting point, they traveled to a restaurant 5km away for dinner.
A few hours later two other men joined them and helped the suspect force the boy to go with them to a jungle.
Police tracked phone used to make ransom call.
The boy’s family later received a call asking them for a 5,00,000 rupee (£56,000) ransom.
The victim’s father immediately reported his son’s disappearance to the police, who tracked the phone used to make the call.
In a stroke of luck, the suspects’ car broke down and was spotted by a police response vehicle that was stationed nearby.
After the mobile tracker confirmed that the broken-down car was the one they were after, police approached the vehicle and rescued the boy.
Officers apprehended the main suspect, though his accomplices managed to flee the scene.
Manhunt underway for Grindr kidnappers.
Mathura senior superintendent of police (SSP) Shalabh Mathur confirmed that a manhunt is underway to find the other two suspects.
He added that the main suspect is being interrogated to find out whether he had targeted anybody else through Grindr.
The incident is the first of its kind to be reported in the Mathura area, though criminals in other parts of the world have long used Grindr to target LGBT+ people.
In January, two Texan men were charged with kidnapping, carjacking and conspiracy to commit a hate crime after they allegedly used Grindr to kidnap and rob nine gay men, smearing faeces over one of the victims and sexually assaulting another.
It followed a similar reports from Oklahoma, where in September a series of Grindr users were duped by a fake profile and robbed at gunpoint.
