A man from Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam District was arrested on Wednesday by the Cyber Crime Police in Hyderabad, after he allegedly cheated several women on matrimonial sites by demanding money from them.
The accused was identified as 23-year-old Nallapati Jeevan Kumar, a native of Nallamadugula village in Chandrashekarapuram Mandal and the police said that he would often tell women who met on matrimonial sties that his mother was bed-ridden and undergoing cancer treatment, in order to extract money from the victims.
Explaining Jeevan Kumar's modus operandi, the police said that he created a fake profile on matrimonial sites, in the name of Rishi Kumar and using the photos of another person, introducing himself to women as a professor in the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru.
The police said that they received the first complaint on October 4 when a woman claimed that she had created a matrimonial profile in June this year and found a profile of one Rishi Kumar Nallapati.
"They exchanged many photos and calls. She insisted that he come for a video chat but he avoided showing his face giving some flimsy reasons. After exchanging their views, they both decided to marry," the police said in a press release.
"After that, he requested her to furnish her credit card details facilitating him to use her credit cards as his mother was sick and suffering with cancer. Believing his words, she sent the photos of her credit cards to him and even passed on the OTPs, which he used to spend approximately Rs 2 lakh. Later he asked her to send her debit card, from which he used another Rs 40,000. Later, he blocked her profile and stopped responding to her," the police added.
The police said that he bought one iPhoneX worth Rs 1 lakh, a TV worth Rs 40,000 as well as a watch worth Rs 11,000, besides making other such lavish expenditures.
"Later in the month of March 2018, he trapped another woman, who is a software employee from Bengaluru and made her believe that his mother was suffering with cancer and managed to get approximately Rs 10 lakh through online transfer into his account," the police said.
With that, investigation authorities said that the accused purchased a 400CC bike worth Rs 2 lakh besides a few other gadgets, even going to Goa and partying with the money.
The police said that in April, the accused also duped another unemployed woman from Bengaluru of Rs 1,80,000 under a similar pretext.
In total, authorities estimate that he cheated several women of at least Rs 20 lakh.
Based on the complaints, the accused was booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology (IT) Act and sent to judicial remand.