Afghan national arrested for ‘raping, cheating’ US woman

An Afghan national has been arrested for allegedly raping a US national and duping her of $86,000 after gaining her trust by befriending her on social media and then threatening her.

He allegedly threatened to post her private pictures online, attack her with acid and frame her in fake terror cases in her country, said the police.

Refugee status

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said Hameedullah (34) is currently in India and has a refugee status. The 39-year-old American woman, who is in the business of compression clothing, had come to India to meet him after they interacted over Facebook where he posed as M.K Faheem, a banker based in Dubai.

“He possesses excellent communication skills and has command over several languages. He has made Facebook profiles with different names and approaches female users for friendship over social media. With his efforts, he used to win the confidence of female victims and entrap them. We are ascertaining how many other women he has targeted,” said Mr. Yadav.

The police said the woman met Hameedullah around November last year and he professed his love for her.

“Initially, he would portray himself as a gentleman and spend money on the woman to gain her trust, the police said. He would win her confidence, give her assurance of marriage and then get physically intimate with her,” said Mr. Yadav.

Fake marriage

He added that in this case, he also prepared a fake marriage document mentioning the woman as his lawful wife and started exploiting her sexually. “Hameedullah also took sexually explicit pictures and videos of the woman and even managed to cheat her of $86,000 on various pretexts. The accused got the amount transferred to Afghanistan and further received this money in India through alternative channels,” said Mr. Yadav.

Blackmail

However, the victim discovered his real identity and found that the accused has been mentioned as a scammer on a website ‘who scammed you.Com’. As she raised the matter with him and demanded a return of her money, he allegedly threatened to carry out an acid attack on her. “He blackmailed her saying he would implicate her under charges of terrorism and also told her that he would upload her explicit pictures on the internet,” said the police.

Mr. Yadav said Hameedullah disclosed that he usually targeted women who were in their 30s, because he felt that they were more vulnerable as they were looking to get settled soon. Another officer added that his victims were mostly foreign nationals. During questioning, he claimed that he is married and his wife is in the US and is pregnant but the police will now verify his claims, sources said.