Right swipe for wrong reason: Dates fleeced of lakhs at cafes

NEW DELHI: Afsan Parveen (25) did job hunting during the day. At night, her aspirations took a dark turn. She allegedly trapped men on dating apps like Tinder and Bumble, took them to shady, nondescript cafes, and then disappeared. For a few drinks and some snacks, the date had to pay a hefty amount to the restaurant, whose management used to be part of the plot, before they could leave.
Those who resisted were threatened with the CCTV footage showing them getting cozy with the date and fear of police.Some were even confined and thrashed before they left, broke and heartbroken.

Parveen, who was operating multiple dating accounts in fake names, is now behind bars. She was caught after a civil services aspirant filed an extortion case against his Tinder date, with whom he had gone to east Delhi's Black Mirror. Parveen was arrested at another cafe while trying to pull off a similar scam with a man from Mumbai.
Joint commissioner Sagar Singh Kalsi said an owner of Black Mirror cafe, Akshay Pahwa, was also arrested. "The hunt is on for other accused in the case, which is being investigated by inspector Sanjay Gupta's team comprising ASI Narendra and others," Kalsi added.
The complainant said he had been talking to Varsha for a few weeks after she swiped right on his profile on Tinder. This Monday, they were to meet as it was Varsha's birthday. Though he had classes, a 'see once' picture sent by her made him bunk. She said she wanted to go to this new cafe on Vikas Marg. At Black Mirror, they barely had some snacks, cakes and shots of fruit wine, besides some drinks, that Varsha had to abruptly leave after receiving a call about an emergency at home.
The youth was taken aback when he received a bill of Rs 1.22 lakh. He was confined and beaten up in one of the cozy cabins and forced to pay up. Once out, he approached police, who tracked down Varsha and found her to be Afsan Parveen. She was working as a 'table manager', a name used for operators of the scam hired by cafe managers. Out of the bill, 15% went to the operator, 45% to the manager, and 40% to the owners.
Investigators found that Black Mirror was owned by two brothers, Akshay and Vansh Pahwa, and their friend Ansh. They had employed Digranshu as the manager. Special CP Ravindra Yadav has appreciated the police team's efforts.
Such scams may now be gaining ground in Delhi, but in Europe and some other places abroad, this is a common modus operandi for cafe and bar owners to make extra buck by targeting tourists. Sites like Reddit, TripAdvisor and Google have numerous reviews by users sharing similar ordeals about such incidents at bars, cafes and restaurants in Switzerland, Hamburg in Germany, St Petersburg in Russia, Hungary and other places.
In India, too, similar cases have emerged in other metro cities, including Gurgaon and Noida. Last year, a west Delhi pub had come under the scanner in one such case.