Elderly woman falls for conman's 'love', loses Rs 94 lakh

September 8, 2016

Pune, Sep 8: If you think something is too good to be true, chances are that it probably is. A 64-year-old widow from the city learnt this lesson the hard way recently.

lovemoneyThe Chatushrungi police have booked a person named Harley Benson, who claimed to be from London, for allegedly duping the elderly woman of Rs 94.5 lakh after promising to marry her. The woman lodged a police complaint on Tuesday.

The suspect had befriended the woman, a resident of Model Colony, off Fergusson College Road on Facebook. Benson and she exchanged cellphone numbers and began sending SMSs and Whatsapp messages to each other in May 2016.

According to police, he professed his love for her a couple of months ago and promised to marry her. Benson won her confidence by claiming that he was willing to relocate to India.

As the woman's daughter is based in the US and her husband died in 2014, she lives alone in the city, police inspector U B Shingade said.

The woman was earlier employed as a teacher in a prominent research institute of the Union government and has now retired. police said.

On July 27 this year, Benson called her up and told her that he was shifting to Pune and was carrying gold and diamonds worth 95,000.

After a couple of days, he called her up again claiming that Indian customs officials had caught him at the Delhi airport and were demanding a fine for the gold and diamonds.

Benson claimed that he was not carrying a large amount of money and requested her to pay the fine.

The complaint said that Benson provided her a few bank account numbers and requested her to deposit money in them. The woman deposited Rs 94.5 lakh in the account numbers provided by him over some period. After receiving the money, he switched off his cellphone number.

Police said that the woman sold a piece of land to pay the money. Police have obtained details of the bank accounts and have launched a manhunt to trace the suspect.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
April 14,2020

New Delhi, Apr 14: A 35-year-old man has been booked by the police for refusing to eat food at a quarantine centre on the ground that it had been cooked by a Dalit.

Reports said Siraj Ahmad, a native of Bhujouli Khurd village under Khadda police station in Kushinagar district, had returned from Delhi on March 29, and was staying at the quarantine centre at the village primary school along with other four people.

On Friday, village head, Lilawati Devi, in absence of the cook, prepared food in the quarantine centre for all the five people but Siraj refused to eat it.

Police, after conducting investigation, registered a FIR against him under the SC/ST Act on Monday.

The village head had lodged a written complaint with the police on Friday and also informed sub-divisional magistrate Desh Deepak Singh and block development officer Ramakant.

SHO Khadda police station, R.K. Yadav said that a case against Siraj was registered under the SC/ST Act.

Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, Vijay Dubey, the local BJP MLA, went to the house of village head and asked her to serve him food cooked by her.

"Untouchability is a social evil that cannot be tolerated at any cost," he said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 26,2020

Warangal, May 26: A 26-year-old man from Bihar was arrested here for murdering nine people by throwing them into a well to cover the murder of a woman, police said on Monday.

Dr Ravinder, Commissioner of Police (CP), Warangal, said that the bodies were recovered on May 21 and May 22 from the well. Investigation has revealed that the accused, Sanjay Kumar Yadav, killed all of them to cover up the murder of Rafiqa, with whom he had a relationship.

He said that Yadav got acquainted with a person named Maqsood and his sister-in-law Rafiqa. "Slowly, he came close to Rafiqa and started living together with her three children. Yadav tried to misbehave with Rafiqa's 15-year-old daughter. Rafiqa did not like this and threatened to lodge a complaint against him," Ravinder said.

"Then, Yadav planned to kill Rafiqa in order to live with her daughter. Yadav promised Rafiqa to marry. They boarded a train to West Bengal from March 7. Yadav mixed sleeping tablets in the food packet and later strangulated her, and threw her body outside the train," he said.

According to police, Yadav later came back to Warangal but Maqsood's wife Nisha started questioning him about the whereabouts of Rafiqa.

"Nisha threatened to lodge a police complaint against him. With a premeditated motive, from May 16 to May 20, he visited Maqsood's family who stayed in a gunny bag factory," he said.

Yadav purchased sleeping pills from Warangal and mixed in the food on the birthday of Maqsood's elder son on May 20, police said.

"Maqsood and his five family members were living there. Yadav mixed sleeping pills in the food and later they consumed it. Maqsood's family friend Shakeel was also there. Then, he went to the first floor of the factory where two labourers were staying. He mixed sleeping pills in their food too. He suspected that they may get up and create a problem. To cover up the murder of Rafiqa, he killed nine people," Ravinder said.

At around 12:30 am, Yadav woke up and saw that everyone is asleep, according to police.

"Then, he used the gunny bags to drag all the nine people into the well. He threw the gunny bag one by one into the well," Ravinder said.

According to the police, six teams were deployed to investigate the case.

"Yadav has been arrested now and will be taken to police custody. We will collect all evidence and ensure that he gets maximum punishment for this offence," Ravinder said.

 

Comments

abdullah
 - 
Thursday, 4 Jun 2020

Yadav will be released by court saying that he is mentally sick and he did not kill 10 people intentionally.  

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 19,2020

New Delhi, Jul 19: At least six people were killed and 20 injured when a bus overturned after colliding with a private vehicle at Agra - Lucknow Expressway in the wee hours of Sunday. According to initial reports, the bus carrying around 40 passengers toppled after hitting a stranded SUV at around 5 am, 122 km from Lucknow.

A police team reached the spot within a few minutes of the accident and rescued the injured with the help of locals. They were rushed to a nearby hospital. “Five passengers were killed on the spot while another died minutes after reaching the hospital,” Hindustan Times quoted Kannauj DSP Amarendra PD Singh as saying.

Around 20 other passengers have also sustained injuries who were admitted to the hospital, the police said. The bus had started from Bihar's Darbhanga and was en route to Delhi. "The private bus was coming from Darbangha and going to Delhi when it hit a car. Both the vehicles came down from the highway," a senior police official told news agency ANI.

Meanwhile, authorities are trying to ascertain the identity of the deceased. UP CM Yogi Adityanath expressed over the loss of lives and directed officials to ensure all help to the victims.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.