A woman, who generated four fake Aadhaar cards and married three times to dupe prospective bridegrooms and their families has been arrested in Odisha’s Kalahandi district.
The Kalahandi district police apprehended Elee Mahanta, 32, who was reportedly demanding money for both marrying and walking away from marriages.
She had assumed numerous identities in the name of Sindhumati Munda, Mamta Jain and Mamta Agrawal. Each name had separate Aaadhar card, said police.
According to Kalahandi Police, Elee hailed from Jalda under Raghunathpali police limit of Sundargarh district. She first got married to Kumudabandhu Patel. After his death, she again tied the nuptial knot with Rajendra Das in 2013.
Following separation from Rajendra Das, Elee was staying with her relatives in Sarangarh village of Chhattisgarh.
“In the month of June last year, a meditator identified as Birbal Sharma put up a marriage proposal with one Bikash Jain, whose parents were desperate to see their son married. Sharma demanded ₹4 lakh from Jain family for the marriage to be solemnised,” said Jayadev Tarini, inspector in charge of Madanpur Rampur police station.
The marriage took place on June 28, 2020. “Our investigating team found while the marriage was being negotiated, Elee had introduced fake parents and relatives to Jain family. The desperate parents had given ₹4 lakh to the mediator for the marriage,” said Mr. Tarini.
The woman who had assumed the new identity of Mamta Agarwal started behaving weirdly after the marriage. The man smelled foul play and found she had multiple Aadhaar cards and ₹30,000 in her possession.
The woman demanded ₹5 lakh to live separately. Finally, the Jain family lodged a police complaint. The Madanpur Rampur police said she was perhaps planning for another marriage and investigation was going on to ascertain the fact.