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Runaway bride tied knot to lay hands on husbands’ cash
A 32-year-old woman and her parents were arrested on Saturday by the Sion police for allegedly cheating a city businessmen over the last 18 years.
A 32-year-old woman and her parents were arrested on Saturday by the Sion police for allegedly cheating a city businessmen over the last 18 years.
The police said Bangalore-based Kausar Begam used to cheat people by marrying them and fleeing with their money and valuables. The, she used to register complaints of dowry harassment cases against her husbands. Begam’s parents Iqbal Pasha and Gulnaz, who had been allegedly assisting her, have also been remanded in police custody till April 8.
The police said the trio targeted only businessmen. They used to visit five-star hotels and approach them. Begum would befriend the victim and propose marriage. After the wedding, she would flee with valuables. She would threaten him and lodge a police complaint against him and his family over dowry harassment.
Inspector Shantanu Pawar said: “The trio has been booked for cheating, threatening and blackmailing, criminal conspiracy.”
The incident came to light in 2008, when Sayyed Ahmed (35), an export businessman from Powai, lodged a complaint that his wife and her parents had been blackmailing him for two years. “Investigations revealed that Begum, with support of her parents had been cheating several businessmen in the city using similar modus operandi,” a police officer said.
“Ahmed was Begam’s ninth husband. A fortnight after their marriage in 2006, without informing anybody, Begam left the house with jewellery and went to her parent’s house in Bangalore,” said Ganesh Iyer, Ahmed’s lawyer.
When Ahmed tried to contact Begam, she and her parents lodged a complaint alleging that Ahmed’s family has taken Rs 15 lakh as dowry. Iyer said: “Begam recently married a Dubai-based doctor and was arranging for documents to fly to Dubai. She has married 10 businessmen and we have the 10 marriage certificates.”
