West region cyber police station in Mumbai has arrested a 35-year-old man from Goa for allegedly duping a city-based 31-year-old doctor to the tune of ₹21 lakh by using a fake identity on a popular matrimonial site, officials said. Police suspect that he might have targeted other women in a similar fashion as the bio-data of five other women were found in his possession.
The arrested accused, Zorin Anil Solanki aka Kshitij Desai, is a Borivli resident. Police officials said the class 12 drop-out created a profile on a popular matrimonial site, posing as a stock trader. Solanki would upload his photographs on the sites and lure women to fall for his handsome looks, they added.
“He got connected to the Andheri-based doctor on the matrimonial site a few months back. He emotionally trapped her and would always show that he cared a lot about her. Promising to marry her, he, under the pretext of investing money in the share market for their future, collected ₹21 lakh from her over a period of time,” said DCP (cyber) Dr Rashmi Karandikar.
The complainant woman recently read news articles about the arrest of Pune-based conman Yuvraj Bhosale, who has duped many women registered on matrimonial sites and suspected that she might have also been a victim of such fraud.
At her request, the cyber police carried out a preliminary enquiry and her suspicion turned out to be true. Cyber police found out that the person she was interacting with for months was indeed a cheat after which the medical profession lodged a formal police complaint, leading to the registration of an FIR against Solanki, on December 8.
“The very next day we arrested Solanki from Goa where he was splurging the victim’s money on gambling in casinos along with his friends,” said Karandikar. The doctor saved money to gift a car to her elderly father but the accused defrauded her of all her savings, the DCP added.
“Solanki would play his game very smartly and give bank account details of his friends to receive the fraud money to avoid any police action. His background check revealed that he has two criminal cases registered against him in the past – one at VP Road police station for cheating and an assault case. It was found that he has spent time in jail as well,” said assistant police inspector Shubhangi Holkar.
“Solanki’s matrimonial account was deleted by the service provider as he failed to comply with the KYC norms. But, by then he had already managed to get the doctor’s phone number by using the chatting feature on the matrimonial site. The service providers must introduce more security features to prevent misuse of their platforms from such cheats who just come on their sites to look for contacts of gullible women. Bio-data of five more women have been found in his possession,” said DCP Karandikar.
“Solanki has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating and impersonation. A city court has remanded him to police custody till December 15,” said Holkar.