Pune: Woman loses Rs 93,000 to ‘hotelier’ she met on dating site

PUNE: A 28-year-old woman marketing professional lost Rs 93,000 to a ‘hotelier’ she had befriended on a dating website between December 2019 and May this year.
Police said the suspect (30), who claimed to be a hotelier, proposed marriage to the woman and collected money from her on the account of medical treatment of his ailing mother. He also told the woman that he had suffered huge losses in his business.
The woman fell for the trick and realised that she had been duped only after the suspect refused to marry her. She then registered an FIR with the Kondhwa police under the relevant sections of the IPC on Tuesday after police reached out to the woman following the arrest of the suspect in another case. The case has been transferred to the crime branch of the Pune police for further probe.
Senior inspector Datta Chavan of the crime branch (unit V) said, “The woman got friendly with the man on a dating website in December 2019. The suspect lured the woman by saying that he was the owner of five restaurants, which the woman never verified. Later, she started visiting his residence after he promised to marry her.”
Chavan said the suspect was arrested on June 13 on the charge of stealing cash and ornaments, collectively worth Rs 1.74 crore, from a businessman’s flat in Bibvewadi. “He will be in police custody remand till Thursday,” he said, adding that he had duped more women of lakhs of rupees by using the same modus.