PUNE: Hadapsar police arrested a 30-year-old conman on Friday, who used to dupe women using a matrimonial website on the pretext of marriage. The arrested accused was identified as Krishna Devkate, a resident of Puranik City in Thane.
Devkate registered himself on the matrimonial site Jeevansathi.com using a fictitious identity and duped around 4 to 5 women of Rs 8 to 10 lakh on the pretext of marriage.
The modus operandi of the accused was to contact women seeking marriage on the matrimonial sites. After the initial contact through a website, he used to exchange his contact number with his targets and then remain in touch with them through WhatsApp or calls.
The incident came to light when a Pune-based woman reported the matter to the police in 2017, who in turn managed to arrest Devkate almost a year later. According to the Hadapsar police, Devkate was operating multiple accounts on the matrimonial site in the name of Prajwal Deshmukh with addresses in Pune, Navi Mumbai and Thane.
Devkate came in contact with a Pune-based woman in April 2017 after she visited his profile on a matrimonial website and expressed interest in him.
After being approached by the complainant, Devkate lured her into his trap by winning her confidence with his smooth talk and managed to take Rs 5.5 lakh from her.
He took the amount in small sums on various occasions. By the time the complainant realised that she had been defrauded it was too late as Devkate stopped taking her calls.
Sunil Tambe, Police Inspector, Hadapsar police station, said, “The accused is a BCom graduate from Bhavan’s College in Mumbai and had worked in the BPO sector for around 10 years. He was already married and used to live with his wife in Thane. Regular shortage of money led him to duping women on the matrimonial website.”
“He made a fake profile in the fictitious name of Prajwal Deshmukh. He said he was highly educated and earns a salary up to Rs 1.5 lakh per month. By making his profile attractive he managed to lure women seeking marriage into his trap and cheated them,” added Tambe.
The police have registered a case under section 420 (cheating) of the IPC and section 66 of the IT Act against the accused.
He was produced in court on Friday and remanded in two days police custody.
