Mumbai: Woman gathers proof against 'fraud groom', gets him arrested

Photo for representational purpose

A 30-year-old woman gathered evidence for a year against a married man for allegedly cheating her by pretending to be a prospective groom and finally managed to get him arrested recently.

As per a report in Mumbai Mirror, the victim had met the accused over a matrimonial website and just three days before their wedding, she came to know that he was already married. The victim then cancelled her wedding and gathered evidences against the accused to get a complaint lodged against him. The accused has been identified as Vijay Jagdale, 34, a resident of Kamothe in Navi Mumbai.

According to the victim, who works in an IT company, she had created a profile on a matrimonial website in December 2018. She got a request from the profile of Jagdale, who works as an assistant manager at a private firm at Vikhroli. They then started speaking over the phone and after both their families gave consent, the marriage was fixed for May 26, 2019.

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"We got engaged on May 5. On May 23, I received a call from a woman who claimed that she was Jagdale's wife and that they had got married in 2015 in a temple in Khar (East). We then visited the temple from where we got some documents of Jagdale's earlier marriage. On May 29, I visited Vishnu Nagar police and gave a written complaint, but the senior inspector told me that temple documents don't prove that he had married and my complaint was not accepted then," said the victim.

In May this year, the victim received information that Jagdale's wife had filed a divorce case against him at Bandra Family Court and three hearings of the case had also taken place.

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"On June 20, 2020, I again visited Vishnu Nagar police station with another written complaint to get a cheating case registered. I also pressed for sexual abuse charges in my complaint as he had got intimate with me claiming that he would marry me soon. This time too, police did not entertain my complaint and suggested that I file a private complaint in court," she said.

The victim then hired a lawyer and again approached the police for a third time with her complaint in August this year but again, no FIR was registered in the matter.

"On August 25, we visited senior officers and told them about the situation. After their intervention, a criminal offence was registered but the police only registered a cheating case and did not include physical abuse charges in the complaint. When I gave a written complaint again, the police included sections of rape, molestation, criminal breach of trust and criminal intimidation in the case," she added.

In October, Jagdale had approached Sessions Court to secure anticipatory bail, which was rejected. He then moved Bombay High court, which too rejected his bail after the victim's family opposed it.

"On November 17, he went to Supreme Court, we again engaged our lawyer and on November 25, the Supreme Court also rejected his bail," she said.

"We arrested Jagdale on November 26 and he is currently in police custody," said senior police inspector SS Sable of Vishnu Nagar police station.

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