'Man missing’ and kidnapping complaints are not uncommon in Kerala, and law enforcement agencies are well equipped to deal with either. However, sometimes, these are often filed against runaway lovers by their family members who disapprove of the relationship. A similar complaint was recently received by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) stationed at Ernakulam Town. But this one stood out for its very uncanny ending that left the officers and the ‘victim’ perplexed.
The incident occurred in early April. Raghavendra (name changed), a 26-year-old who hails from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, was seen wandering nervously at Ernakulam Town railway station. He had with him a large travel bag and was often seen glancing at his phone, as if waiting for someone. RPF officers on duty approached him to check if he needed any assistance. To them, the man muttered, “I lost my girlfriend.”
Initially, the officers suspected a missing person case. When they enquired for more details, Raghavendra showed them photographs of the woman. He admitted, they had only been chatting online and he had never met her in person.
Indeed, their relationship had blossomed entirely through social media. He had come all the way down to Kerala for their first meeting, carrying with him hopes of marriage.
Curious and confused by the strange circumstances, officers took him to the nearby RPF office for a proper inquiry. Assistant sub-inspector Suresh P Abraham took charge of the case.
Soon, Raghavendra narrated the whole story. Five months earlier, he had come across a profile on Instagram belonging to a woman named Ashwathy, supposedly hailing from Kannur. Enchanted by her appearance and intrigued by her ‘Malayali charm’, he sent her a friend request, which she readily accepted. Their conversations began casually — just a friendly ‘hi’, but with time, their exchanges drew deeper and more personal, eventually turning into what Raghavendra described as ‘love’.
The emotional intimacy between them culminated in a virtual proposal. Interestingly, from Ashwathy. She wrote, ‘Shall we get married?’. It was this question that prompted Raghavendra to hurtle down to Kerala.
The investigation soon thickened — the RPF reviewed his phone and chat history, and cyber experts with the RPF and the Kochi city police helped trace the Instagram account. But what they learned subsequently was outright shocking.
Ashwathy was not a real woman, but an AI-powered chatbot.
When this was relayed back to Raghavendra, he refused to even acknowledge it, never mind accept it. But after he was shown clear evidence, the matter sank in, and the young man broke down in tears. Sitting before ASI Suresh, Raghavendra cried, “I believed her… I believed everything she said.”
“This was unlike any cyber fraud case we handled. The man, it seems, truly believed in the love he found online and had even bought a wedding dress for the girl,” Suresh says.
Reiterating the need to be cautious when engaging the cyber space, Kochi city police commissioner Putta Vimaladitya states, “There is an uptick in the number of cyber offences. People fall in love with ‘accounts’ they stumble online without even knowing who’s on the other side. They even share personal information and build emotional connections. There are many who exploit this.”
Further, the officer stressed the importance of responsible behaviour and called for a clear code of conduct when in digital spaces.