Man held for cheating women after meeting them via matrimonial sites

Police said a 28-year-old woman in August registered a cheating case against Chavan, saying they met through a matrimonial site

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police have arrested a 34-year-old man for allegedly cheating at least 40 women after meeting them via matrimonial sites. They said the accused, Vishal Suresh Chavan alias Anurag Chavan, who has B Tech and MBA degrees, would get in touch with women from rich backgrounds and claim he worked in a high-end mobile manufacturing company. Chavan allegedly took money from at least 30 people by promising to get them the latest iPhones.

Based on call data records, the police found the accused was using a mobile number in the name of someone else. (HT Photo (Representative Image))

Chavan faces three two cheating and a rape case. Police said a 28-year-old woman in August registered a cheating case against Chavan, saying they met through a matrimonial site and he allegedly took ₹2.25 lakh from her on the pretext of investing in the share market. After a month, he stopped meeting her and receiving her calls.

“Based on the technical evidence and call data records, we gathered that the person was using a mobile number in the name of someone else. We had his photographs and after connecting one link to another, we found his residential address in Kalyan East but he had not been home for 15 days,” said a police officer.

Inspector Sudhir Jadhav said Chavan duped many women. “Most of them are not coming forward to register cases against him. He was arrested in 2017...after a woman registered a cheating case against him...he had taken ₹17 lakhs from her. He got bail from the high court after submitting ₹17 lakh in the court.” He added Chavan would contact women on matrimonial sites and promise to marry them and get details of their financial background. “He would then start visiting the woman’s home to gain trust and later take money to invest.”