Couple arrested for cheating three families of Rs 5 lakh

Tue, Feb 9 05:12 AM

The Malwani police on Sunday arrested a husband-wife duo —Viren and Nupur Asthana—who have cheated three families to the tune of Rs 5 lakh. They wanted money to pay up for Viren's commercial pilot licence tests in South Africa, said police. Though the couple is based in South Africa, they have been in Mumbai since January to arrange for funds, the police said. The accused hail from Kanpur and have been married for four years. Viren, who had completed pilot's training course from South Africa, was falling short of Rs 4 lakh to pay for his licence tests. "Viren uploaded his profile on a matrimonial website in January. As he was an aspiring pilot pursuing his degree in South Africa, his profile lured many women. Impressed by Viren's profile, an MBA student from an institute in Bhusaval contacted him on the website," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone XI), Sanjay Bannerjee.

The victim's family got in touch with Viren in January and after a few meetings, Viren introduced his wife Nupur as his sister, the wedding was fixed. On each meeting, Viren and Nupur would ask the victim's family to cough up money and manged to take around Rs 3 lakh.

On Sunday, Nupur called the victim's family and told them that Viren had met with an accident in Singapore and asked them to arrange for Rs 7 lakh for the treatment. The victim's father was asked to come to a hotel in Malvani to hand over the money. However, Nupur did not meet him. She suspected a police trap and rescheduled the meeting at Royal Palms Hotel. The victim's father got suspicious and approached the Malwani police. "We laid a trap for them and as soon as Nupur came we arrested her. After questioning her, we arrested Viren, who too was staying at Royal Palms," said Bannerjee.

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