Pune resident Suhas (name changed on request) had no idea his dream date would suddenly turn into a nightmare. A young gay man in his early 20s, Suhas interacted with a person on a popular dating app and went to Katraj to meet his date. As soon as he entered a house, Suhas saw three men spring out of nowhere.
“They said they were policemen and threatened me with dire consequences if I did not acquiesce to their demand for money. They said they were from the social security cell and wanted to lodge a complaint against me and call my parents,” he said.
Despite being shaken, Suhas held his ground and said he did not commit any crime. When he threatened to call his friends from a support group, his assailants got unnerved and threw him out of the house. A shaken Suhas called up a friend who came to take him home.
Anil Ukrande from YUTAK Foundation, an LGBT support group, said incidents of violence, threat, and blackmail targeting gay men have been on the rise in the city. Dating apps, he added, are increasingly being used to target members of the gay community.
“However, very few cases are reported to the police, as most victims prefer either to keep silent or give in to the demands,” Ukrande further said.
The activist said the number of crisis calls they received from gay men has more than doubled on a year-to-year basis. “Last year, we received four crisis calls. But this year, we have already got more than 10 such calls,” he said.
Notably, the rise in attempts to extort gay men comes five years after the Supreme Court read down Section 377 which criminalised same-sex relations between consenting adults.
