Couple met on matrimonial website

Mysore/Mysuru: Despite warnings by the Police and the cyber cell officers not to deal with or believe strangers on the Internet, many women continue to fall prey to fraudsters, particularly on matrimonial sites.

The latest case is of a software engineer from Bengaluru who was cheated by a resident of Mysuru who claimed to be a doctor. The cheating came to light just days after marriage as the conman decamped with 200-gram gold valued at Rs. 8 lakh and Rs. 15 lakh in cash.

The victim in this case is 45-year-old Hemalatha, a resident of Bengaluru and she told the Police that the man is 46-year-old K.B. Mahesh, a resident of SBM Layout in R.T. Nagar. The victim has now lodged a complaint with Kuvempunagar Police in Mysuru.

The conman zeroed-in on Hemalatha’s marriage profile in Shaadi.com which she had uploaded and he sent her a message on Aug. 22, 2022. In his profile, Mahesh had stated that he was a doctor, specialising in Ortho DNB and was living in Mysuru.

House at R.T. Nagar

Impressed with the profile, Hemalatha responded and the duo met at a fruit juice shop at Marathahalli in Bengaluru. They exchanged their mobile numbers and were in touch over the phone. On Dec. 22, 2022, Mahesh invited Hemalatha to his home at No. 136, SBM Layout in R.T. Nagar and showed her the house.

Later, he told Hemalatha that he intends to open a clinic at Vijayanagar Fourth Stage. An unsuspecting Hemalatha felt happy over the marriage proposal and was also impressed by Mahesh’s personality. She took the alliance issue to her parents and they got married on Jan. 28, 2023 at Dolphin Hotel in Visakhapatnam.

The next day they returned to Mysuru. On Jan. 30, Mahesh left home and told Hemalatha that he had to attend an urgent surgery. He, however, did not return even after three days. Later, Mahesh came home and asked Hemalatha to apply for a loan of Rs. 70 lakh to fund the opening of his new clinic in Vijayanagar Fourth Stage.

Demand for money

Hemalatha got suspicious and refused to comply with his request. A fight broke out between them and Mahesh reportedly threatened to kill Hemalatha. This has been mentioned in Hemalatha’s Police complaint.

On Feb. 5, Mahesh again returned to their house and fled with 200-gram gold and Rs. 15 lakh in cash. After discovering that the cash and gold are missing, Hemalatha called Mahesh’s mobile number but the phone was switched off. Hemalatha waited for a few days. Meanwhile, Divya, another resident of Bengaluru, came to Hemalatha’s house in R.T. Nagar and told her that she too had been cheated by Mahesh after marrying her. Without wasting more time, Hemalatha lodged a complaint with the Kuvempunagar Police narrating her ordeal.

The complaint was registered on June 13 by Inspector Arun under IPC Sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

Fraudsters bank on desperation

According to the Police, fraudsters usually target women and men who are older are desperate to get married.

They usually either claim to be working in foreign countries or claim to be in socially respectable positions like for example a doctor. Once they identify the target, the frauds befriend them and after gaining their trust, they start cheating the victim, a senior Police Officer said.

Under matrimonial frauds, most of the times, women get sexually abused and are economically exploited.

These frauds are the worst form of crimes as they not only cause economic losses to the victim but also cause mental stress to the victim. Such cases may also cause the victim to lose trust in the marriage system which can in turn damage the backbone of society, he added.