Bhopal: A US-based highly paid IT professional of Indian origin has allegedly been duped of a whopping Rs 2.68 crore in the name of marriage by an Indore-based young woman and her brother.
According to Indore police crime branch sources, a highly paid IT professional V Kalaga, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh and is working in a premier company in North Carolina, was looking for a perfect Indian girl to marry.
His quest for finding the right Indian life-partner took him to a premier matrimonial portal, where he got in touch with an Indian woman named Barkha, who too was looking for a perfect life partner since March 2023.
However, Barkha, for whom the US-based IT professional fell for, was actually a married woman Simran from Indore.
With brother Vishal's help, Simran had copied the picture of a budding female model from the Instagram and then posted it as the picture of the fictitious woman Barkha on the matrimonial portal.
When the IT professional slowly became confident of a potential marriage with Barkha aka Simran, he started regularly getting connected with her over WhatsApp.
Knowing well that the North Carolina-based man was now under her total influence, Barkha aka Simran and her brother Vishal, started requesting monetary help for a host of reasons, spanning from paying outstanding loans to funding the life-saving advanced medical treatment of their father.
How the money was reportedly spent
"The US-based NRI fell fully in the trap of the married woman and her unmarried brother and started transferring to them the desired money for their emergencies. During the period April 2023 and June 2023, he sent them a whopping Rs 2.68 crore-plus. A few months later, the US-based NRI became suspicious and approached the Indore police, after which the investigations into the matter began," additional DCP (Crime) Rajesh Dandotiya told The New Indian Express on Friday.
Subsequently, multiple teams of the crime branch swooped on two separate places recently, arresting 27-year-old Simran from Indore and her 25-year-old brother Vishal from Ahmedabad recently.
The sister-brother duo, who are currently being questioned in Indore crime branch’s custody, have revealed that the Rs 2.68 crore-plus earned from the NRI by duping him in the name of potential marriage, have been spent in repaying loans, purchasing cars and investing in their existing and prospective business ventures.