Maharashtra
Honey-Trapping Scam Targets Men In Mumbai Through Fake Escort Services; Check How To Stay Safe
After dating app scams, online escort services have become as a new way of duping men in Mumbai. These digital flesh trade dens, masquerading as legitimate websites, promise foreign escorts and vanish after receiving payments. One such website, posing as a ‘Web Blog’, lures victims by advertising women from countries like Africa, Australia, Japan, and Russia.
A prominent example is Massage Republic, a site claiming to provide commentaries on politics and human trafficking. However, it redirects visitors to a page offering escort services in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, and even international locations like Dubai, Bangkok, and Nairobi.
One of the people who was recently cheated after booking an online escort service from the website conveyed his ordeal to The Free Press Journal. He booked a Nigerian escort for Rs8,000 through the site. Directed to a hotel in Marol Naka, Andheri (E), he paid Rs2,000 upfront to the hotel manager. Inside the room, he was told to pay the remaining amount before the woman arrived. However, the woman who eventually showed up was not the one he had booked.
“When I confronted the woman, she demanded extra money to arrange for the same woman I had asked for. Sensing something was amiss, he refused, asking for a refund. The woman excused herself, claiming the money had to be recovered from the initial recipient, who had already disappeared. The hotel manager denied any involvement,” the man said on condition of anonymity.
The man claimed to have contacted the police but alleged that the police did not entertain his verbal complaint. However, he said that he did not want to be an official complainant fearing public humiliation and hardships in personal life. The Free Press Journal got connected with another man, a local from Mumbai, who had also booked services from a Nigerian national and was cheated in the same way. Notably, both the incidents happened in the same hotel located in Marol Naka of Andheri (E).
However, when one of the victims reached out to the Human Rights Commission, an NGO working on cases of human rights violations, the NGO’s Maharashtra vice president Roshan Pathak reached out to multiple women offering escort services through the website. He found out that all the Nigerian women denied to meet at any other place and pressed on meeting at the same hotel in Marol Naka where both the men were scammed.
“Normally, nobody would understand that there is an escort service website behind this blog. The women would reply on WhatsApp only after we provided them with a code received from the website. Although all the women demanded different prices ranging from Rs10,000 to Rs12,000, they would ultimately agree to Rs8,000 after negotiations. Similarly, Russian and Japanese women would call at their places in Bandra and Khar. This seems to be a new easy way of scamming men since they are vulnerable and do not speak out about it fearing shame,” said Pathak.
Modus Operandi…
Scammers create websites posing as blogs but secretly offering escort services
They advertise escorts of various nationalities (Nigerian, Russian, Japanese)
Victims are directed to specific hotels, like one in Marol Naka, Andheri (E)
Victims pay an upfront fee to hotel staff or directly to the scammers
A different woman shows up, demanding additional money to bring the promised escort
Excuses are made, and the initial contact disappears with the money
Victims hesitate to report the scam due to fear of social embarrassment
Interaction occurs via WhatsApp, accessible only through codes from the website
Maharashtra
Mumbai: BMC’s helpline ‘My BMC Marg System’ launched ahead of monsoon, special focus on filling potholes

Mumbai: BMC launches special helpline to fill potholes in Mumbai With an aim to address citizens’ complaints promptly and effectively, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation has implemented an integrated complaint management system ‘MyBMC MARG’ (Complaint Management and Redressal System) this year. Through this system, citizens will be able to register 114 different types of complaints related to the Municipal Corporation through a single application and they will also be able to follow up on them. Under this, the facility of registering complaints of potholes on roads on the ‘MyBMC MARG’ system has been provided to the citizens.
Potholes sometimes form on the roads during the monsoon season. In this context, the Municipal Corporation is constantly striving to take immediate notice of the complaints received from the citizens and take necessary corrective action. Digital media is being used to make the process of registering pothole complaints easy and efficient for the citizens. Last year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had launched a separate mobile application ‘Pothole QuickFix’ for lodging complaints about potholes on roads. Through this application, citizens can lodge complaints with information, photos and location of potholes on roads. The initiative received a good response from the citizens. During this time, citizens had to use different systems for lodging complaints related to different departments of the municipal corporation. Keeping this in mind, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has launched a comprehensive system ‘MyBMC MARG’ from this year to provide more comprehensive and convenient services to the citizens. The mobile application ‘Pothole QuickFix’ has been integrated into this system. Accordingly, the facility to lodge a total of 114 types of complaints related to various departments of the municipal corporation including potholes, solid waste management, sewage issues, water supply, road maintenance, parks, public health, pest control, encroachments, lighting is available on ‘MyBMC MARG’.
The feature of the ‘MyBMC MARG’ system is that it is possible for citizens to register complaints from one platform, upload relevant images, check the current status of the complaint, track the action taken by the concerned department and get information about it after the complaint is resolved. Hence, the entire process from complaint registration to redressal has become more transparent and citizen-centric. This initiative by the Burhan Mumbai Municipal Corporation has made the complaint registration process easy, transparent and efficient and has provided a single comprehensive digital platform for citizens to follow up on their grievances. Especially when citizens register complaints of potholes on the roads, it becomes easier for the concerned department to take immediate action. This helps in expediting the pothole repair process. Android users can download the MyBMC MARG application on their smartphones using MyBMC MARG – Apps on Google Play and iPhone users can download the MyBMC MARG app – App Store. The people of Mumbai are appealing to the Municipal Corporation to register all complaints regarding potholes on the roads on the ‘MyBMC MARG’ system.
Maharashtra
Mumbai: Two accused arrested for staging a drama of jewellery theft worth over Rs 60 lakh in Andheri

Mumbai: Police have succeeded in arresting two such clever accused who had fabricated a story of theft and road accident and staged a drama of jewellery worth Rs 60 lakhs being stolen. However, during the police investigation, it was revealed that the person delivering the gold jewellery was the thief and he had committed the theft along with his friend. MIDC police had registered a case of theft on the complaint of Kanchan Pawar of Gold Star Company. According to the details, the complainant had sent his employee Avinash Gangadhar Kadam (26) to deliver the gold jewellery. At the same time, he told that his motorcycle Activa had met with an accident and during this time the gold jewellery and bag were also stolen. He pretended to be admitted to the hospital without any injury or wound. During this, the police examined several CCTV footage and it was revealed that the suspect, whose name is Manoj Hemant Jogdand (41), was patrolling here in a suspicious manner before the accident. During the investigation, the police came to know that It turned out that both of them had faked the theft and planned the robbery by describing the incident as an accident. After that, the police also took Avinash into custody. In this case, the police arrested both the accused and solved the mystery. This operation was carried out by DCP Dutta Nalawade on the instructions of Mumbai Police Commissioner Devin Bharti.
Crime
Accused in Rs 2 crore Pune embezzlement case arrested in Nashik

Nashik (Maharashtra), June 16: An absconding accused in a Rs 2 crore embezzlement case registered in Pune was arrested in Maharashtra’s Nashik on Tuesday, police said.
According to a complaint filed by Kiran Dadasaheb Shinde, 38, with Pune police, the responsibility for flat sales and related activities across four buildings (A, B, C, and D) of the ‘Ganga Fernhill’ project had been entrusted to Senior Sales Manager Simon Ronnie Peter, 42, but he allegedly, instead of depositing the proceeds from flat sales into the company’s account, transferred the funds to a fraudulent private bank account belonging to his associate, B. Chandrashekhar, thereby embezzling approximately Rs 2 crore collected from 32 customers.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered at Pune’s Kalepadal Police Station on June 9 (Crime No. 257/2026), under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
However, following the registration of the case, Peter went absconding and even switched off his mobile phone to evade arrest.
During the course of the investigation, Pune police received information that the accused was hiding in Nashik city and officials from Kalepadal Police Station contacted Senior Police Inspector Ashok Sharmale of the Gangapur Police Station and sought assistance in tracing and apprehending Peter.
Acting on credible intelligence, Sharmale learned that the accused Peter had arrived in Nashik in a car and was staying in Room No. 301 of Hotel Treebo Sapphire in Kalenagar on Gangapur Road.
Upon receiving the information, Crime Investigation Team officer Ghanshyam Bhoye and his team were immediately dispatched to the location. Acting swiftly, the police team detained the accused and subsequently handed him over to the Pune police for further legal proceedings.
The operation was successfully carried out under the leadership of Senior Police Inspector Sharmale of the Gangapur Police Station, and his team, including Assistant Sub-Inspector Tushar Deore and Police Head Constables Ravindra Mohite, Girish Mahale, Bhagwat Thavil, Ghanshyam Bhoye, Pravin Kedare, Gorakh Salunke, Sujit Jadhav, and Tulshidas Chaudhary.
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