Ahmedabad: Digital evildoers played with the feelings of a 29-year-old LLB understudy by reaching her over a wedding site, promising marriage, and redirecting Rs 13.26 lakh from her. An offense was enrolled at the Ahmedabad city cyber crime cell.
The woman from Vadodara is pursuing LLB in an Ahmedabad college. She had put up her profile on a matrimonial website earlier this year. In May, she came in contact with a person named Arav Acharya who told her that he lives in Liverpool in the UK and currently works as an orthopedic surgeon in the United Nations peacekeeping programme in Yemen.
The two continued chats for some time, during which she developed attachment for Acharya. He also claimed that he loved her and would marry her. Acharya then gave her a phone number claiming that it was his father’s. She had a WhatsApp chat with his father, who told her that he was agreeable for the marriage and would come to India with his son for the marriage.
The woman also agreed to marriage. Acharya later told her that he was planning to come to India with his father but asked her to book tickets for them claiming that was in a remote location and not in a position to book tickets. As instructed, the woman transferred Rs 3.2 lakh to an account belonging to Acharya’s relative. She was also made to pay Rs 2.56 lakh on the pretext of paying his employer to terminate his work contract. He contacted her once again saying he had been stopped by authorities at the Turkey airport. He claimed they would frame a fake money laundering complaint against him if he failed to pay them Rs 7.5 lakh. The woman then transferred Rs 7.5 lakh to a bank account provided by Acharya.
Later, she got a call from somebody claiming to be calling from Delhi airport and asked her to pay Rs 75,000, which is when she sensed something amiss. On checking, she found that the flight number Acharya quoted did not exist. The woman approached police and an FIR was registered at the cybercrime cell.
