A youth who had conned 16 women claiming he was an IAS officer and promising marriage, has been re-arrested in the city. He is already cooling his heels in a Madurai prison over a similar case.
The Cyber Crime Cell of Greater Chennai City Police tracked him down based on a complaint from a software engineer from Kancheepuram. According to the police, Sathya (name changed), a native of Kancheepuram and staying in a hostel at Saidapet here, lodged a complaint in October last year that one Vidyuth, who claimed he was an IAS officer on training, said he liked her profile posted on a matrimonial site and promised marriage.
Later, he allegedly spun a yarn, saying his family was in dire need of money and sought help. Sathya (27) agreed and gave him 10 sovereigns of her gold jewellery and Rs 10,000 cash. Conning over, ‘Vidyuth’ stopped all contacts with her.
Based on the complaint, the police tracked him and found that his real name was Chakravarthy (22). They established his identity by cross-verifying data from various sources. To some other girls, he passed himself off as Tamilselvan. The cops found that the con artist was from Chockanthangal village is Villupuram and that he was already in Madurai Central Prison as Madurai police had registered a similar case against him. His relative Perumal (22) was also in prison for helping him.
While in custody, Chakravarthy said he had dropped out of a diploma course and confessed that he had cheated 16 women and that he was using the bank account and credit card of the first woman he had cheated. He also had several new matrimonial IDs of girls and new SIM cards. “We have got some details on the first woman he cheated as he had advised all his other victims to deposit money in her bank account,” said Dr M Sudakar, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crime Cell.
“His modus operandi was the same: he would respond to matrimonial profiles, develop rapport, meet some of them, take money or jewellery or both, cease all contacts and change the sim card,” the ADC explained. The police also recovered 10 sovereigns of gold jewellery belonging to the complainant from a gold finance company at Panruti taluk.