The Bangur Nagar police have arrested a wanted couple for alleged conspiracy to cheat a 39-year-old public prosecutor working at the Karnataka High Court. The couple allegedly made online transactions through Paytm and Gpay using the complainant’s stolen iPhone and threatened to widely circulate a private 12-year-old video with his wife that they found on the device.
The accused couple has been identified as Fatima Sheikh and Mohammad Jameel Sheikh, residents of Ambernath. The case was registered against them in March this year.
The complainant, a resident of Bangalore, was introduced to Fatima Sheikh in January after her husband was arrested by the Karnataka police. She often met the complainant in his chamber to discuss her case. She allegedly sought financial help from him several times citing family problems, including her father-in-law’s illness.
The complainant came to Mumbai on March 2 and Fatima invited him to Inorbit Mall in Malad for a meeting, where she went with her five-year-old daughter and took his iPhone for a selfie. On the pretext of going to the washroom, she disappeared with the phone. She left behind a note on the table saying that she needed the phone for money.
When the phone was later returned, she had withdrawn ₹80,000 through Paytm and GPay. When he demanded his money back, she allegedly threatened him with the video she had found on the phone. After a police complaint was lodged, the police launched a manhunt. On arrest, she confessed to the crime at the behest of her husband, now out on bail in the previous case, who was also arrested on charges of fraud and theft.
