Think twice before you say ‘yes’ to a friend request on social networking sites — be it Facebook, Twitter or Orkut. Better, do not make a virtual stranger a ‘friend’.

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You can end up being duped if you do not exercise caution in the cyber world, as Rakhee, wife of West Delhi jeweller Sameer Swahney, discovered recently.

Rakhee was arrested by Delhi Police on Tuesday for poisoning and robbing her family to elope with Rahul Kumar, who she met on Facebook one-and-half years ago.

Rahul sent her a friend request and Rakhee accepted it without thinking too much. He told her that he was a US-based non-resident Indian presently staying in Delhi.

Within a few months, they became romantically involved and Rahul proposed marriage to Rakhee, who again said ‘yes’.

They soon decided to elope. Rahul asked Rakhee to poison and rob her family before leaving home and she did, smitten that she was.

She laced her family dinner with a poisonous substance which made her two children unconscious. Husband Sameer, however, went to sleep without eating the food.

After stealing Rs5 lakh and gold and diamond jewellery, Rakhee went to Rahul’s place and later they together went to a hotel in Bahadurgarh, 32 km from the capital.

At the hotel, Rahul played the same trick on Rakhee which she played on her family. He offered her dinner mixed with sedatives and fled with the cash and jewellery she had brought along.

Meanwhile, Sameer lodged a complaint against Rakhee at a local police station. Police checked her mobile phone record and arrested her from the hotel.

Deputy commissioner of police (Delhi West) V Ranganathan said Rahul was absconding.