Bengaluru, 28 Feb

A conman who sweet-talked his way and cheated more than 250 women whom he befriended on matrimonial sites and social media platforms has been nabbed by Railway police.

The accused, Naresh Pujari Goswami 45, a native of Rajasthan, has been living in the City for 20 years. He created fake profiles on matrimonial sites and social media platforms and lured women and their parents to pay him money. The accused created profiles online using photographs of handsome young men and posed as a customs official and as a techie.

SD Sharanappa, DIGP Railways, Bengaluru, said: “We began probing the case after a victim from Coimbatore registered a complaint.” The accused had invited the victim’s parents to Bengaluru to meet them. He took Rs 10,000 from them at a railway station in Bengaluru saying he wanted to reserve a ticket for his relatives. After that, he went incommunicado.

“During investigations, it was found that the accused cheated around 56 women from Rajasthan, 32 from Uttar Pradesh, 32 from Delhi, 17 from Karnataka, 16 from Madhya Pradesh, 13 from Maharashtra, 11 from Gujarat, 6 from Tamil Nadu, 6 from Bihar and Jharkhand and two from Andhra Pradesh. He posed as a customs official employed at the airport and a software engineer,” Sharanappa said.

Goswami targeted widows and divorced women. The accused used pre-activated SIM cards (no registration required) to speak with these women. The police said he texted and spoke to women late at night and wooed them to part with their money after gaining their trust.

Police advise those who think they have been a victim of such a scam to register a complaint online at (https://cybercrime.gov.in/).