Mumbai Crime: CA duped of Rs 3.2 lakh by online dating website, 1 held

This picture has been used for representational purposes.

A Kolkata-based fraudster was arrested last Saturday for allegedly cheating a 54-year-old chartered accountant in Powai was Rs 3.2 lakh in the pretext of helping him find a life-partner through an online dating site. The CA, who was divorced twice, had filed the fraud case against the accused, identified as Arnab Singh alias Neel Roy Baramali (29) in May 2019, Indian Express reported.

In his complaint to the police, the CA had said that he came across the dating site, locanto.com, in April 2019, while searching for a life-partner. After registering himself and finding many contact numbers on the website, he tried calling on the numbers but got no response. Then on the morning of April 9, at around 10 am, the man received a call from a woman who identified herself as Jenny and asked him about the women he prefers to date. The complainant responded saying that he prefers a Bengali woman and Jenny asked him for his Aadhar card number.

A few hours later, Jenny called him, asking him to pay Rs 830 as registration fee and sent him photographs of four women out of which he selected a woman named Debjani Chakraverty. Jenny then asked him to pay Rs 18,700 to get the woman's contact details.

The complainant then transferred the money after which he received Chakraverty's contact details, and they started talking. Chakraverty even sent him more photographs and then the CA insisted on meeting for dinner. According to the police, Chakraverty initially refused to meet him and asked him to pay Rs 49,000 as an agreement fee. After he transferred the amount, Chakraverty and the Ca agreed to meet on April 12. She asked him to pay another Rs 64,000 and he paid her the amount. The day before they were supposed to meet, Chakraverty called him, asking him to pay another Rs 40,000.

An officer said that the complainant ended up paying Rs 2.31 lakh only to meet the woman but she kept on cancelling the meet. The CA then called Jenny and complained to her. He then contacted a man who claimed to be Jenny's boss, who asked him to pay Rs 70,000 to file a complaint. Then on April 12, the man called the CA, asking him to pay another Rs 85,000, he felt something amiss and asked for the registration to be cancelled. When the CA asked them to pay his money, they switched their phones, prompted him to file a police complaint in May.

After the preliminary investigation, the police registered a case under the IPC and the IT Act. After a few months, the police tracked Singh to Howrah in Kolkata and a team was dispatched but he was not found. An officer said that Singh was arrested after he was arrested in a similar case by Kharghar police. The police are on the lookout for three of his accomplices, who helped him in committing the fraud.

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