Thane: The police have arrested the husband of a Nepali singer for allegedly duping a woman of Rs 8.5 lakh in Ambernath town of Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Friday.
The police have apprehended Arvind Kumar, the husband of Nepali singer Rabina Badi, while a hunt has been launched for her, senior inspector Madhukar Bhoge of Shivaji Nagar police station in Ambernath said.
An offence had been registered in August 2021 following a complaint of cheating lodged by a Nepali woman living in Ambernath, he said.
The accused couple had allegedly cheated the victim Kalpana Magar of Rs 8.5 lakh by wooing her to sell her kidney to meet her financial needs, the official said.
Magar, whose husband is a security guard, supports her family by working as a house help in the locality.
The victim had attended a programme of the accused singer in Nepal in 2019, and in 2020, she befriended her on Facebook, he said.
When the victim informed the accused about her financial condition, the latter offered to help her out and asked her to sell her kidney.
Badi also claimed that she had sold her kidney and received Rs 4 crore for it, he said.
According to the police, the accused asked the victim to deposit Rs 10 lakh first and then claimed that she will have to travel to a foreign country where her kidney will be removed and she would get Rs 4 crore.
The victim transferred Rs 8.50 lakh between May and December 2020, following which she realised that she had been cheated when the accused started giving her evasive replies about the process, the official said.
Based on the complaint lodged by the woman at Ambernath police station, the police recently nabbed the singer's husband and further probe is underway to find out if more people are involved in the racket.
