KOCHI: The Kochi city police on Tuesday arrested a 38-year-old man on charges of marriage fraud. Payyannur native Biju Antony, who is currently residing in Mananthavady in Wayanad, is the arrested. He landed in the custody of the Ernakulam North Police in a case related to the cheating of a woman hailing from Malappuram.
As per the complaint, Biju established a relationship with the petitioner a month ago and began staying with her in a rented house near Vaduthala. He, however, decamped with her gold ornaments and cash about a week later.
“His modus operandi was to marry young widows by advertising himself as a prospective groom in matrimonial classifieds, to swindle their money and gold,” the police said. “He will spend a few weeks with the victim and leave them behind after obtaining their gold and cash,” said an officer.
After marriage a woman, he will take a SIM card in her name and use the number to lure the next victim. “He had swindled Rs 45,000 from a physically disabled woman from Kottayam and established links with another woman in Vaikom, even while staying with a woman at Vaduthala. These women identified him in different names,” the officer said. The accused, who had been hiding at Gundlupet in Karnataka and later in Wayanad, was tracked down with the help of the Kalpetta police.
Interestingly, he had published a matrimonial advertisement in vernacular dailies a day before being arrested and was getting several inquiries over the phone even while under custody. According to police officers, several cases of marriage fraud have been pending against the accused since 2008.