A 23-year-old Delhi man was arrested Friday (Jan 3) from Shakarpur area after allegedly defrauding more than 700 women on dating apps like Bumble and Snapchat.

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Tushar Singh Bisht, who works as a recruiter at a private company in Uttar Pradesh's Noida, used to pose as a US-based model on dating websites by creating fake profiles.

Bisht used a virtual international mobile number for registration on the apps and generated fake profile using photos of an actual Brazilian model. Then, he would befriend women aged between 18 and 30 saying he is a model who frequently visits India.

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After gaining their trust, the Delhi resident would then ask for the victims’ phone numbers and private photos under the guise of friendship. According to a police statement, what Bisht started as a source of entertainment initially later turned into a systematic scheme of extortion.

Tushar Singh would then use these pictures to blackmail those women and ask for money. He would also threaten to upload those pictures and visuals on social media or dark web if his demands were not met.

Police said the accused befriended more than 500 women on Bumble and over 200 on Snapchat and WhatsApp. Over the period, he accumulated lots of personal data and pictures of the victims.

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Tushar had a free run until a second-year student from Delhi University filed a complaint with the Cyber Police Station on December 13 last year. She had connected with the fake profile created by Bisht in January last year. When, the accused started using her personal photos for blackmail purposes, the woman approached Delhi police and filed an FIR.

An investigation was launched and later police raided Tushar’s house in east Delhi. The police also retrieved over 60 WhatsApp chat records with women from Delhi and nearby regions. The probe is underway.

(With inputs from agencies)