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CHANDIGARH: A final-year BSc student ’s act of answering an advertisement seeking gigolos in Chandigarh fell flat after he was duped of nearly Rs 4 lakh by a so-called ‘friendship club’.

The fraudsters running the club asked him to pay various amounts towards membership fee, cost of medical tests and security deposit, all adding up to Rs 3.8 lakh.

The student did not have money, so he borrowed it from his friends to pay the fees. When the fraudsters stopped taking his calls, he approached the cops. The Chandigarh cyber cell police force has arrested one of the alleged conmen, Krishan Kumar, 35, from Kurukshetra in the case. The student told cops that he saw an advertisement in a language newspaper stating that a person could earn anything between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000 daily by becoming member of a friendship club. The student called up on the mobile phone number given in the ad in May and.got a call a week later from a man who introduced himself as a Arjun.

Models members of club, student told

The caller told him that high-profile married women, models and college girls were members of the club and he could make a lot of money by befriending them after taking the membership.

In his complaint, the student has said the caller also assured him that his identity would be kept a secret so that his personal life is not affected in any way.

After trapping him, the accused initially asked the student for his photographs and some minor personal details and later sent him details of two different accounts with IFSC codes and asked him to deposit Rs 40,000 as membership fee of the club.

Once the student complied with this, the caller demanded more money for conducting his medical test to rule out sexually transmitted disease and security deposit to be made prior to approval of membership.

The student, in all, ended up paying Rs 3.80 lakh to the conman.

But once the payment was made, the accused stopped taking the complainant’s calls and he approached the cyber cell of Chandigarh police in June.

Cyber cell cops traced the accused through the bank accounts in which the money was transferred and arrested Krishan Kumar from Kurukshetra on August 9.

Kumar was produced in a local court that remanded him in judicial custody.

