KOCHI: A 30-year-old Indore native woman lured physically-challenged men, at least 11 of them including four from Kerala, to marry her and swindled their money and gold jewellery. Her game ended with a lower court here awarding her four years of rigourous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 9.5 lakh.
The Ernakulam Judicial First Class Magistrate Court on Wednesday found Megha Bhargav guilty. Her sister Prachi Sharma Bhargava, the second accused in the case, was also given the same punishment. The prosecution case is that to swindle money from Lenin Jithendra, a resident of Vyttila, a man with speech disability, her family approached his family members and made a proposal to marry Megha, intentionally concealing her earlier marriages with two other persons in 2014 and 2015.
The marriage was solemnised on September 25, 2015, at a temple in the city. After the marriage, Megha escaped to Indore taking the gifts such as gold ornaments, a watch, a diamond stud, clothes and Rs 5,50,000 in cash, all worth Rs 9.5 lakh. Interestingly, while released on bail in this case, she again married another person in 2016 and cheated him of his money too.
“The accused had targeted only disabled persons as they were vulnerable and incapacitated to react against the atrocities against them. In such instances, the law has to take its will to safeguard them from such wicked persons,” the court observed while pronouncing the verdict.
The Kochi city police arrested four persons — Megha and Prachi, Mahendra Bundela and Devendra Sharma from Noida — on charges of matrimonial fraud in 2016. However, the court acquitted Bundela and Sharma. Megha had married Lenin through the middleman, Mahendra Bundela, and received a gift of Rs 9.5 lakh including gold ornaments weighing 25 sovereigns. After living with him for nearly a month, she allegedly left his family and moved to her sister’s house. When his attempts to persuade her to come back failed, he lodged a cheating case with the city police.
According to the police, the woman targeted the rich, but matrimonially disadvantaged men having physical disabilities, and made off with their valuables after staying with them for a brief period. The woman insisted on marriage in accordance with the respective religious customs of the grooms to avoid formal registration of the marriages.