Woman, arrested for robbing man she met on online dating app, robbed at least 16 others

A 27-year-old woman from Pune who has been arrested by the Pimpri-Chinchwad police for robbing a man she met through an online dating platform, was found to have robbed at least 16 such people within the past year

A 27-year-old woman from Pune who has been arrested by the Pimpri-Chinchwad police for robbing a man she met through an online dating platform, was found to have robbed at least 16 such people within the past year.

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The woman has been identified as Sayali Devendra Kale (27), a resident of Radhika Apartment at Sadhu Vaswani chowk, according to Krishna Prakash, commissioner of police, Pimpri-Chinchwad. She was arrested in January, remanded to police custody and later remanded to judicial custody by a local court, according to the police.

Kale’s father, who was a teacher, died in 2010, after which her mother had developed mental health issues. The woman also has a brother who works in a BPO. According to the police, the woman is a second year BCA drop-out and used to have a job with a mobile service provider company which she quit during the lockdown.

“She used the prescription of her mother who has a history of suffering from acute depression (and high blood pressure) to sedate the men she met through these dating applications. One was Restyl 0.5mg, of which 15 tablets were purchased and used, and Welprazone 0.5mg of which 10 tablets were purchased and five were used,” said commissioner Prakash.

The woman used her mother’s prescription to buy these tablets and told the police that she was habitual user of sleeping pills as well.

However, only four of her victims have lodged a complaint. The remaining victims - including two women - have chosen to not lodge their complaint.

“One of the victims was an official of railways working in Pune and is a native of Uttar Pradesh. He told us that he was impressed with her communication skills and presentation that made it seem like she was from an affluent family. She tried to steal his jewellery, but she got caught. However, much after she had left, he realised that she managed to flee with ₹4,000 from his wallet,” said assistant police inspector Ambrish Deshmukh of Unit 4 of Pimpri-Chinchwad crime branch who was heading the investigation. Sudhir Hiremath, deputy commissioner of police, crime and senior police inspector Prasad Gokule of Unit 4 were overlooking the investigation.

Of the four cases against her, one is registered at Wakad, one at Dehuroad, and two at Chandannagar police station. She used a different name on different dating platforms..

The police also came across two women whom she had met through another dating app and had relations with in 2018-2019 and had extorted them for money in exchange of keeping their sexuality a secret. While one of them is married, the other has moved out of Pune and neither of the women wished to come on record even though they provided the information to the police, according to an official close to the investigation.