A Kandivali based woman was duped to the tune of ₹1.63 lakh by a Cyber fraudster who posed as a Pandit, and cheated her by minting money from her on the pretext of performing pujas to help her get a matrimonial match. The victim paid the money to the fraudster in a series of transactions only to later realise that he was a fraud.
A banker, who was facing trouble getting married, was searching for Pandit, who would perform puja to find a way out. A quick search on a local search engine gave her the result of a Pandit, identified as Vikhram Sharma, who when contacted, claimed that a puja of ₹20,000 is to be done, which would solve her problem. A few days later, however, Sharma informed her that due to a few complications, the puja was unsuccessful, for which he kept demanding money from the woman to complete the puja.
Using the modus operandi, the fraudster, Sharma, duped the woman to the tune of ₹1.63 lakh, and it stopped only when the demand didn't stop. She immediately approached the police and lodged a complaint, acting on which a case was registered by the Kandivali Police. The accused has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act for cheating and impersonation.
