The incident came to light when three months ago, a 28-year-old woman lodged a complaint with the police stating that she has been duped of Rs 2.25 lakh by a person who befriended her on a matrimonial website
The accused had his crafty ways of winning confidence of women before cheating them in the guise of marriage and investment
Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch has arrested the accused who had cheated over 35 women on the pretext of marriage by creating fake profiles on marathimatrimony.com, Jeevansathi.com, Facebook and Instagram.
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The arrested accused, an engineer and an MBA, had also cheated over 30 men in the guise of selling iPhone at low prices. He has four cases registered against him, including rape on the pretext of marriage.
The incident came to light when three months ago, a 28-year-old woman lodged a complaint with the Kanjur marg police stating that person named Vishal Chavhan had befriended her on marathimatrimony.com site. He took Rs 2.25 lakh from her and after getting the money, Chavhan cut off contact with her.
The police probing this case found that the bank account of the accused in which the money was transferred, was fake. The woman then informed the police that she never met Chavan in person and will not be able to recognise him.
Unit 7 of the Crime Branch, which is probing the matter, started a parallel probe into the matter and arrested Vishal Chavhan alias Anurag Chavan from Thane.
The house in which Vishal Chavhan was hiding in Thane was locked from outside. The Crime Branch team went to his house dressed as delivery boys and nabbed him.
Investigation revealed that cases are registered against Chavhan at Mumbai's Versova, Sion and Narkoli police stations. According to the case registered with the Sion police, Chavhan befriended a woman in the pretext of marriage and took Rs 17 lakh from her “to invest in stock market.” When the woman asked for money back, he refused to give the money. The woman lodged a case with the Sion police and Chavhan was arrested
A Crime Branch official told mid-day that after arresting Vishal Chavhan, on checking the CDR of his mobile, it was found that he was in contact with almost over 35 women whom he had befriended on the pretext of marriage.
Chavhan had his crafty ways of winning their confidence before cheating them in the guise of marriage and investment. A case of rape on the pretext of marriage is registered against him in Versova police station.
A Crime branch official said, "We have found numbers of 35 to 40 girls in the CDR, out of which we have contacted 10 girls. These girls have told the police that Vishal Chavhan has cheated them too."
"The CDRs we have checked are from the last few months. Chavhan has been using this modus operandi since 2016.” “Police is also investigating how many mobile numbers he has used in the process," official added.
Crime Branch DCP Sangramsinh Nishandar told Mid-Day, "I appeal to the women, if you have been cheated by Vishal Chavan alias Anurag Chavan, please contact the police."
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