21-year-old student befriends, robs 400 teen girls

A final-year commerce student from Gujarat was arrested on Saturday for allegedly robbing 400 teenage girls in India and Dubai after befriending them on social media. According to the Saki Naka police, the accused identified as Yash Moolchandani, 21, is a gambling addict

Mumbai: A final-year commerce student from Gujarat was arrested on Saturday for allegedly robbing 400 teenage girls in India and Dubai after befriending them on social media.

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According to the Saki Naka police, the accused identified as Yash Moolchandani, 21, is a gambling addict. After selling robbed mobile phones and valuables, he used to spend the money in casinos in Goa.

The police said that Moolchandani had met a 16-year-old girl from Andheri on Instagram. The two became friends after which the girl asked Moolchandani to help her get a job.

The girl, who is the daughter of a fruit juice vendor, met Moolchandani on January 15 at Asalfa in Saki Naka to talk about her job. The man took her to a fast food outlet and later, she was taken to Powai. They returned to Asalfa before heading to a hotel in Vile Parle.

“He took my daughter to the sixth floor to smoke a cigarette, where he told her that he wanted to gift her a gold chain the same as the one she was wearing and asked to have a look at it. He also asked to borrow her iPhone worth ₹80,000. As soon as my daughter went to the washroom, Moolchandani fled with her valuables,” the girl’s father said.

The police then scanned the CCTV footage of the hotel and traced Moolchandani’s mobile location to Kheda district in Gujarat. After arresting the accused, the police found that in the past one year he had cheated 400 girls across India and Dubai. “We found his passport having several entry and exit stamps of Dubai,” Balwant Deshmukh, senior police inspector, said.

They said that he started committing offences after he successfully duped someone in Goa. In the last three months, more than six cases have been registered against him in Mumbai, Thane and Gujarat. “We have seized valuables worth ₹2 lakh from Moolchandani and are contacting other victims,” Deshmukh added.