Karnataka: Mysuru businessman cheated by woman after befriending him on Facebook

MYSURU: It was a brief friendship, the end of which was, in many ways anti-climactic.

Ravikumar B

, a 28-year-old businessman in Mysuru, was duped of Rs 1.7 lakh in cash and 4,85g of gold a mere three weeks after he befriended

Megha

, 25, on Facebook.

Although Megha was subsequently arrested in Bengaluru, whether or not Ravikumar recovers his money remains to be seen, since the money and ornaments he was robbed off are reportedly not with her or missing.

On Facebook, Megha posed as the only daughter of a wealthy man who owned multiple fuel stations, bars and restaurants. They exchanged phone numbers and began interacting with each other regularly. By uploading photographs of another woman, Megha convinced Ravikumar of her being a beautiful woman. The two were soon talking of getting married. Megha then asked Ravikumar Rs 1.5 lakh, which she said was to help him buy a SUV car for his birthday. She later convinced his mother to lend her

jewellery

so that she could have replicas made for the wedding.

The unsuspecting mother-son duo obliged her requests, lending her the money and jewellery through a man named Shivu, who reportedly handed them to Vasanth an autodriver in Bengaluru, from whom Megha collected the loot. Ravikumar’s mother reportedly borrowed an 80g chain from a neighbour, which she then sent to the woman, who she thought would be her daughter-in-law, Metagalli police said.

In February, when Ravikumar’s repeated attempts to contact her after February 10 failed, he finally knocked on the doors of the police station on February 20. Two weeks after the complaint was lodged, Megha was arrested from her Bengaluru home. This is not the first such case in which Megha managed to cheat unsuspecting men of considerable sums of money. She has been arrested twice before, by Bengaluru and Mandya police on similar charges.

In Mandya, Megha had cheated a man named

Yogananda

of Rs 15 lakh, while Shrinivasa, a Bengaluru resident, lost Rs 9.7 lakh to her. As was the case with Ravikumar, it was via Facebook that Megha conducted the entire operation.

Mysuru deputy commissioner of police (law and order) AN Prakash Gowda said, “Megha created a fake profile on Facebook under the name Chinnu Gowda (aka Bindu Gowda) and sent a friend request to Ravikumar.”