The railway police on Wednesday arrested a 45-year-old salesman of a cloth shop who, posing as a customs officer, created a fake profile online to dupe women with marriage proposals.
Based on a complaint filed by a woman, the police tracked down the accused based on the call record details and arrested him. The woman had met him on a matrimonial website and come to see him in the second week of January. The accused, who went to receive her, borrowed ₹10,000 on the pretext of reserving a train ticket for his relative and claiming that he had forgotten his wallet at home.
After taking money, he escaped and switched off his phone. After waiting for several hours and trying to reach him, the victim realised that she had been cheated and filed a complaint with the police.
Based on the complaint, Superintendent of Police S.K. Soumyalatha formed a special team, who tracked down the accused, identified as Naresh Puri, 45.
Investigations revealed that the accused had created a fake Identity in the name of Ankit Jain and was targeting women who advertised in matrimonial services.
Posing as a customs officer, the accused had been cheating women for the last two years. The police recovered 250 contact numbers of women suspected to be the victims of his fraud. The accused confessed that he was operating for two years and cheated three women of several thousand rupees, the police said.
Further investigation revealed that Naresh Puri worked as a salesman at a cloth shop in Cottonpet. A native of Rajasthan, Naresh is married and has two children.
After working hours, he started the con business for fun but took it as profession after a few successful attempts. He purchased two pre-activated SIM cards in black and even created a fake social media account in the name of Ankit Jain with a fake picture. One of the victim’s family had even helped him enroll on a matrimonial WhatsApp group, using which the accused had duped several widows and divorcees, said the police.
The chat history recovered by the police during the course of investigations revealed that the accused had chatted with over 250 women with proposals across the country, including 56 in Rajasthan, 32 from Uttar Pradesh, 17 from Karnataka, 16 from Madhya Pradesh, 13 from Maharashtra, 11 from Gujarat, 6 from Tamil Nadu, 5 from Bihar and Jharkhand and two from Andhra Pradesh. Many victims have not complained to the police fearing social stigma, officials said.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police, S.D. Sharanappa, who supervised the investigations, requested the victims to come forward and file complaints against the accused.
