Online romance trap in Lucknow: Man duped of Rs 1.92 crore by ‘woman’ who turned out to be a man

LUCKNOW: A Lucknow man’s WhatsApp friendship with a woman he met online ended in a massive cyber fraud, with him losing Rs 1.92 crore. The bigger shock came later when police discovered that the ‘woman’ was actually a man posing under a fake identity to trap him. The accused, Imran Ghazi (34), a resident of Mishripur Depot area under Gudamba police station limits, was arrested on Tuesday, police said. According to the complaint filed by Shalabh Pandey on June 2, 2025, the accused introduced himself on WhatsApp as Bhavika Shetty and struck up regular conversations before gradually convincing Pandey to invest money in schemes promising high returns. Trusting the claims, Pandey transferred Rs 1.92 crore to multiple bank accounts, only to realise later that he had been duped. A case was registered at the cyber crime police station under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act, which deals with cheating through personation using computer resources. Police said Ghazi revealed during interrogation that after his Axis Bank account was frozen, he obtained forged Aadhaar and PAN cards to open multiple bank accounts with the help of an associate identified as Shehzad, allowing him to continue receiving fraud proceeds. Investigators found that Rs 54 lakh of the cheated money passed through Ghazi’s accounts, which recorded transactions of around Rs 1.52 crore within a month. Fake identity documents were also recovered from his possession. Police said efforts are on to identify and nab other members involved in the fraud racket.