A 34-year-old man has been arrested for reportedly duping several women, especially widows and divorcees, whom he met through matrimonial sites on the pretext of marriage, police said on Sunday.
According to the police, the accused Anchit Chawla posed as a businessman and duped the women of several lakh rupees. He changed his name and location many times to prevent the police from catching him.
The matter came to light after a woman filed a complaint at Ashok Vihar Police Station alleging she was duped by a man named Mudit Chawla, who approached her in December 2018, through a popular matrimonial site.
She alleged that Chawla claimed to own a bed sheet factory in southwest Delhi's Palam and that he dealt in renting luxury cars to tour and travel agencies.
He started interacting with her through e-mails, calls and WhatsApp. He used to demand small amounts from her which he duly repaid to win her confidence. He later convinced her to take personal loans from different banks to recover his business losses, police said.
The accused duped the woman of Rs 17 lakh till December 2019 on the pretext of marriage. When she insisted on marriage, he started avoiding her, police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Vijayanta Arya said based on the information provided by the complainant, intelligence was gathered and required details were collected from the matrimonial website.
The accused used many profiles with different names to prevent the police from catching him, he said.
"With the help of technical surveillance, our team managed to trace the accused from Palam Vihar Extension in Gurgaon on Friday," the officer said.
During investigation, he was found to be previously involved in four other cases of a similar nature, the DCP said.
The police said Chawla had in the past posed as security chief of the Special Protection Group in PMO and duped a doctor of Rs 15 lakh on the pretext of getting him a government job.
While in another case, he claimed to be the personal security officer (PSO) of a political leader and duped many jewellers, police said.
A laptop, two mobile phones, car and Aadhaar cards have been seized from his possession, they added.