Delhi: Man poses as media house owner to cheat women, arrested

A 32-year-old man has been arrested for duping women by posing as the owner of a media house and cheating women online matrimonial websites from Haridwar on Saturday. Police said the accused had lured as many as 21 women through different matrimonial sites.

According to the police, the accused has been identified as Abhishek Vashist, who was carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head for the arrest.

"During the investigation, it came to light that the accused used to cheat people by making glass IDs on various matrimonial sites including that of Jeevansathi.com, Shaadi.com, Bharatmatrimony.com and divorce community with different names," PS Kushwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) said.

The accused presented himself as the owner of a company by the name 'Akshaya Deep Media House' and posed as an affluent businessman to woo victims from well to do families, the officer said.

"The accused in Haridwar was in a live-in with two different women in two different locations in the same city. Police have so far identified four to five victims. More victims have also shared their emails and Whatsapp chats with the police"

A case was filed at Barakhamba Road police station against the accused by a Delhi-based family for cheating them. A city court had also issued a non-bailable warrant against him in the case, the officer added.

According to police, the accused claimed to have worked as a reporter in various reputed news channels. In 2012, he posed as an Astrologer (Acharya Atul Ji Maharaj) and appeared on Sadhana Media Channel on programs.

After the channel got to know about his activities, they discontinued his programs. Later, the channel issued an advisory also available on YouTube that said Acharya Atul Ji Maharaj is a fraud person and the channel also received several complaints against the accused, the DCP said.

In 2016, he was arrested in a cheating case at a Chandigarh police station when he tried to cheat a businessman in a bogus land deal. Later, he started cheating people by creating fake profiles on several matrimonial sites and presented himself as a wealthy unmarried person, owning BMW car, a house in Gurugram with an annual income of Rs 20-25 lakhs, the officer said.

In 2018, he came in contact with a girl from a Delhi-based family. He introduced himself as a wonder of a media company in Noida, the officer added.

He told the victim's family that his parents were no more and had no relatives. Trusting his version, the victim got married to him in March. The accused stayed with Heer for two weeks and later eloped with all the jewellery and cash which the couple had received as gifts, Kushwah said.

Later, he shifted his base from Delhi-NCR to Haridwar where he presented himself as an owner of a new channel by the name "ADN Star News". To cheat more people, he began interviewing prospective reporters for his channel and was in advance stage of negotiation with some persons for giving franchise of his news channel, he said.

He also began promoting his channel on Facebook and Twitter. The logo of his channel was also apparently similar to the logo of Star New channel. This logo was also displayed by him on several documents. Further investigation is underway, police said.

HISTORY SHEET

• He told the victim’s family that his parents were no more and had no relatives
   
• Trusting his version, the victim got married to him in March
   
• The accused stayed with the victim for two weeks and later eloped with all the jewellery and cash which the couple had received as gifts
   
• In 2016, he was arrested in a cheating case in Chandigarh