Hyderabad: Six engineering students and a sari trader who were allegedly robbing people under the guise of providing call girls were arrested by the Cyberabad police on Thursday.
Police the suspects used to strike deals with sex workers through websites. They would then lure strangers by offering to hook them up with call girls.
A member of the gang would take the client to the sex worker. On his signal, the other members of the gang would barge in, attack the customer and the sex worker and rob them of money and belongings.
Police said sari seller B. Gangaraju, 28, was the mastermind. The engineering students were identified as Y. Sri Teja, Reddy and D. Saiteja, both aged 19, and M. Venkata Vamsi Kiran, M. Nagendra Babu, T. Sai Kiran and K. Saiteja, all 21.
DCP Madhapur K. Vishwa Prasad said Gangaraju, the kingpin, had incurred loss in business after the death of his father in 2013. He had shifted to Hyderabad and started vending saris from Kanchi and Dharmavaram on the streets. After a major surgery for his mother, his financial burdens increased.
Meanwhile, he met six students who were playing cricket at a ground in Nizampet and lured them into the racket. As per their plan, they searched brothels in nearby areas and contacted them as customers. Later they would lure strangers by pretending to be brokers and take them to the brothel before robbing them.
Mr Prasad said the gang had struck seven times in Gachibowli, Madhapur and Miyapur. The activities of the gang came to light last month when Amith Kumar, a techie from KPHB, approached the police. He said apart from robbing him and the woman, the gang had taken his debit card and had withdrawn money collecting the PIN by threatening him.
