39­-year-­old held for cheating woman of Rs 3.5 lakh

MUMBAI: The Kandivli police recently arrested Ashish Barade, 39, for allegedly cheating a 29-year-old woman of Rs 3.5 lakh on the pretext of marriage.

MUMBAI: The Kandivli police recently arrested Ashish Barade, 39, for allegedly cheating a 29-year-old woman of Rs 3.5 lakh on the pretext of marriage.

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According to the police, Barade had created his fake profile in the name of Aniket Joshi on a matrimonial website. Impressed by the profile, the woman, a bank employee, got in touch with Barade and they soon started chatting.

“Barade, who studied till Class 12 in Pune, had claimed he was a computer engineer. He is married and lives with his wife in Navi Mumbai,” said Mukund Pawar, senior inspector, Kandivli police station.

“After winning the woman’s trust, Barade started borrowing money from her on the pretext that he needed it for business,” said another officer.

After six months of chatting on the internet and phone calls, the woman insisted on meeting him. She realized she was duped when he stopped taking her calls and replying to her messages to return the money, said the officer. The woman then decided to approach the police.

“Barade’s details mentioned on the matrimonial site were fake. We traced his residential address using the phone number mentioned on the site. A team was then sent to his home to arrest him,” said Pawar.

Barade has been remanded in police custody till Thursday. The police are checking if he has cheated other women in the past.