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Saharanpur: Two foreigners, UP woman held for duping teacher of 9 lakh

MEERUT: Two Nigerians and a UP-based woman were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly duping a Saharapnur-based woman of Rs 9 lakh on pretext of marriage.


The arrest was made after a complaint was filed by a government school teacher, Rashmi, who alleged that one of the accused befriended her on a matrimonial website and posed himself as an NRI working in Los Angeles.



Rashmi-who is a widow and has two kids-was taken into confidence by the accused when he said that he, too, is a widower and has two kids, the police said.

"An FIR was filed by one Rashmi Bansal - a government school teacher in Saharanpur - claiming that she was duped of Rs 9 lakh on the pretext of marriage. She told us that she befriended one, Krishna Kumar, through a matrimonial website. Krishna- who introduced himself as a Mumbai resident working in Los Angeles-assured to marry her and even sent a picture of his flight ticket to India to celebrate his birthday," said Ashok Solanki, station house officer, Mandi.

"Later, the accused called her saying that he was stopped by customs officials for carrying a ring worth Rs 2.5 lakh, which he bought it for her. The customs official, impersonated by the Indian gang member, asked for a certain amount of money over the next few days to get him off the hook. This is how Rashmi lost Rs 9 lakh," the SHO added.

Following the compliant, police traced the accused to Gautambudh Nagar by tracing their IP address and the fake matrimonial profile they had created. "The accused have been arrested and sent to jail under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. The accused have been identified as Paul Harris, Jeorge - both Nigeria nationals, and Sreeja Singh - a resident of Varanasi. While Paul claimed that his passport expired in March 2019, Jeorge said his passport had gotten stolen and he did not file an FIR for it," said Solanki, who headed the 13-member police team for the case.

The police also seized laptops and mobile phones from their possession which had lakhs of national and international addresses with which they made fake profiles.

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