GUNTUR: Guntur Disha Police on Wednesday arrested army personnel for extorting money from widowed and divorced women through matrimonial sites. The accused, identified as D Sudarshan Rao, is a Naik rank army officer. He was married and had two children.
In a statement, police said, “Sudarshan Rao created a fake profile on a matrimonial site. He is suspected to have duped several women as we have found objectionable videos of several women in his mobile phone.”
Three months ago the complainant, a widow, came into contact with Rao on a matrimonial website. She lost her husband in a car accident in 2020 and received a compassionate appointment in 2021.
The accused introduced himself as B Pawan Kumar from Guntur, an Indian Army Major posted in Rajasthan. He told the woman that he was divorced and had a son. He soon asked the woman to marry him. After the duo got close, he told her that his son had met with an accident and borrowed Rs 50,000.
They met in Guntur and Hyderabad when Rao told the woman that he was posted in Bengaluru.
The complainant informed the police that he had misbehaved with her on both occasions. When she noticed that Rao was getting calls from several other women, she sought an explanation. He evaded the question with a rude response.
On March 31, Rao asked her to come to Tenali. When she refused, he threatened to disclose their WhatsApp chats. Afraid, the woman went to Tenali where the army personnel misbehaved with her again in an inebriated state. Following this, she lodged a complaint. Police registered cases under relevant sections, and launched a probe.
Rao was taken into custody at St Joseph Hospital in Nagarampalem. After investigation, police learnt that Sudarshan Rao had joined Indian Army in 2012 and was a Naik rank officer. He got married in 2016 and had two children — a son and a daughter. He was later transferred to Leh.
“Rao claimed he had a shoulder badge, and name badges with the name Pawan Kumar and posted them on his shaadi.com profile. He wanted to lure women to get his sexual desires fulfilled,” police said.