Yogesh K
Porwar & Siddarth Sethia
The Chikkaballapura cyber crime police on Friday arrested a 45-year-old widow for allegedly running a fraudulent scheme on matrimonial websites.
After losing her husband a few years ago,the accused identified as Komala enrolled in matrimonial platforms, not to find a life partner,but to lure unsuspecting men with promises of marriage.
Operating under different names Komala would engage in conversations with men seeking serious relationships and lure them .
She portrayed herself as a well-off widow looking for a second chance at love.Over time,she would gain their trust and eventually convince them to transfer money for various reasons,such as medical emergencies or urgent financial needs related to her deceased husband’s debts.
Komala tactics were meticulous,she would spend many days chatting with her targets to build rapport before asking for money.She even provided fake documents and staged emotional calls to make her story more convincing.
Using the MO,the accused targeted,Raghavendra,35 of Gouribidanur,introducing herself as window with no family and expecting Rs.6 crore of compensation from her dead husband.
With her charm she lured Raghavendra that the money was stuck as she could not pay taxes and assured him to marry and live a good life with the money if he help her to pay the taxes.
Excited by the offer Raghavendra transferred a total of Rs.7.4 lakh to the account which later police traced to the mother of Komala.
The cheating came to light as Komala blocked Raghavendra from chatting and switched off her phone as soon the money was transferred to the account.
After repeated attempt to approach Raghavendra filed a complaint with the Chikkaballapura CEN police station on August 23.
Based on the complaint,the police track down the accused to Bengaluru and arrested her under cheating and various sections of IT Act.
Probe revealed that Komala is habitual offender and involved in similar cases,Kushal Chouksey,SP Chikkaballapura,said .
According to the police Komala had duped a businessman in Gujarat and taken Rs.25,000 and also taken Rs.1.5 lakh from Nagaraju,from Bengaluru.
Two more people had approached the police soon after she was arrested and filed a similar complaint,the police said .
The accused was married to a KPTCL employee who died in 2017.The accused have two children aged 20 and 16 years.She was addicted to lavish life and blow money on the money she extort from people,a senior officer, said .
The police could recover a total of Rs.20,940 along with a expensive mobile phone and watch the rest of the money the accused had spent on her lavish life he said.
