Matrimonial Fraud Targeting Middle-Aged Women Arrested Cyber Police

Bhubaneswar: A man who was cheating middle-aged women and was exploiting them sexually and financially was arrested by the Cyber Crime Unit of CID, Crime Branch, Odisha.

The accused identified as Biranchi Narayan Nath of Chhendipada in Angul District was targeting middle-aged unmarried, separated, widows or divorced women aspiring second marriage.

On matrimonial site, the accused had created profiles with the tagline “Second Marriage”. The accused used multiple names such as Manas Ratha @ Pravakar Srivastav @ Biranchi Narayan Nath etc. He claimed to be Railway Employee/ Income Tax Inspector or Officer in Customs & Central Excise Department etc.

After making contact through the matrimonial site, Biranchi was making telephonic conversation with the victims and was also visiting their homes. He also promised the victims to get them appointed after marriage.

He used to marry his targeted victims in temples and was getting into physical relation with them at their homes. He never took any of his victims to his own place.

The cheat was capturing nude photos and videos of many of victims through video calls and he was using them to extort money, gold and other valuables.

He was nabbed when a woman from Cuttack filed a complaint against him with the Cyber Crime Unit of CID-CB. The woman had lost her husband in a road accident in 2022 and was living with her two daughters. She came in contact with the cheat through the matrimonial site. The cheat claimed to be a TTI in Railways at Visakhapatnam and claimed to have lost his wife and mother and was living with his father, who he claimed was a manager at SBI in Rourkela.

In October, 2023, he met the victim and her family and expressed his desire to marry her. He made regular calls to the victim and during video calls, he clandestinely captured her nude videos. He later took her on trips outside Odisha and forced her into physical relationship.

After a deceitful marriage, he lived with her in her house for five months and continued to exploit her sexually and financially. He also physically assaulted her, whenever she resisted. The victim endured this abuse out of fear of public humiliation due to the threat of her private videos being made public. He extracted around Rs.5 lakh and 32 grams of gold from her.

When the the victim realized that Pravakar was involved in similar relationships with other womenshe reported about him to the cyber police.

Based on her complaint, the CID, Crime Branch Cybercrime police had earlier registered a case vide No. 52 dated 12.09.2024 U/S 323/ 384/ 385/ 419/ 420/ 465/ 467/ 468/ 469 IPC, R/W Sec 66(E), 67, and 67(A) of the IT Act. During the investigation, a team of officers from CID-CB arrested the accused and discovered that he had defrauded numerous other women too.

It was found that cases have been registered against him at various police stations, including Baidyanathpur in Berhampur, two in Angul Town and Jarpada, Balasore Sadar, Chhend in Rourkela,Dhenkanal, and Nayapalli PS and Balipatna in Bhubaneswar. He has also been involved in similar cases in the state of Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Hariyana, Delhi. Significant digital evidence, including private photographs, videos of several women and fake IDs have been recovered from him and they are being analyzed to determine his involvement in other cases