The Central Crime Branch of the Coimbatore City police has arrested a young woman, her parents and brother on the charge of duping an NRI engineer of ₹41 lakh by promising to marry him.
The police said that the woman, who claimed to be an actor, and her family have duped six prospective grooms of ₹1.42 crore and jewellery worth ₹20 lakh under the pretext of marriage.
The main accused P. Shruthi alias Mythili Venkatesh, 21, of Sri Ram Avenue on P.N. Palayam Road, her father Prasanna Venkatesh, mother Chitra alias Amutha Venkatesh and brother Subash landed in the custody of the police during the investigation of a complaint filed by Balamurugan of Salem, one of the victims cheated by them.
According to the police, Balamurugan and Shruthi got in touch through a matrimony website. Balamurugan gave them ₹41 lakh between May 24, 2017, and January 1, 2018, towards expenses.
The police said that subsequently, he learned that the woman and her family had cases of cheating against them and filed a complaint.
Assault
According to the police, a team of police went to the apartment of Shruthi and her parents around 9 p.m. on Wednesday to arrest them.
However, the four accused and M. Sabarinath, 23, of Anna Nagar West in Chennai assaulted them. A constable from the Armed Reserve wing was injured.
In February 2016, Shruthi and her parents were booked for cheating a software engineer Santhosh Kumar from Namakkal of ₹43 lakh.
Later, in March 2016, they were booked for duping E. Arul Kumar Gururaja, of Chidambaram of jewellery worth ₹20 lakh. The police said that the accused had cheated Sasikumar from Namakkal of ₹22 lakh, Sundar from Nagapattinam of ₹15 lakh and Rajkamal from Dindigul of ₹21 lakh.
The accused were produced in court and remanded in judicial custody.
