Bangalore: The next time you stumble across the profile of a prospective spouse on prominent matrimonial websites, think twice before getting in touch with them as people out there are all set to con you.A 33-year-old professional in an IT-enabled services company was arrested by the Airport police recently for cheating a 30-year-old woman of Rs11 lakh, extracted from her at different occasions under the pretext of marrying her. The arrested has been identified as Joy Richard, who hails from Hosur in Tamil Nadu.
Twenty-eight-year-old Jessie (name changed to protect the identity of the victim), an engineer, stumbled upon Joy’s profile on Jeevan Saathi. She contacted him and they soon became friends. Their friendship blossomed into love and both started discussing about their life ahead. The relationship continued for over one year and Joy, in the meantime, had managed to get over `11 lakh from Jessie on different occasions, a senior police officer said.
“Joy is a pastmaster at the game as Jessie is not his only victim. He is known to have cheated other women too and has extracted Rs15-16 lakhs around the same time he was dating Jessie. Joy is in police custody and we are in the process of recovering cash and other articles that he has acquired through his conning ways,” the officer said. Joy, who dressed smartly and sported a 350-cc bike, was a glib talker who could win the hearts of many vulnerable women. He specifically targeted women who lacked family support, but earned sizeable salaries. Jessie fitted the bill and he cashed in on it, the police said.
Jessie, who had believed that she would marry Joy, came to know on September 19 that he was already married to a Mumbai-based girl for the past six months, even as she was going around with him. Jessie found out that the couple were living in a house in Ejipura near Vivek Nagar. She immediately went to the Airport police station and lodged a complaint. The Airport police asked Jessie to call Joy to a coffee shop on the pretext of meeting him. When he arrived, the police who were in plainclothes caught him. He spilt the beans during intense interrogation. He was later taken to his hometown to recover cash that he had got from women in Tamil Nadu.
