A married Bengaluru software engineer got the shock of his life recently after his online chat friend of years whom he intended to wed and gave Rs15 lakh turned out to be a man.
Ramamurthy, 39, was trapped by Nagarajan, a readymade clothes merchant in Tirupur, using a fake profile picture of a model.
Nagarajan introduced himself as orphan Indumathi and began chatting with Ramamurthy about eight years ago. As the software engineer began falling in love with his fake profile, Nagarajan began extracting money.
“They began chatting frequently for long hours and their friendship grew. To lure Ramamurthy, Nagarajan mailed him photos of a young and good-looking model.
He, however, would not give his phone number and also refused to meet him in person,” police said, adding, “The culprit lured the victim into a honey trap using caring words.”
Nagarajan’s constant refusal to speak even on phone made Ramamurthy suspicious sometime ago and he traced the source of his “girlfriend’s” chat to Tirupur with expert help.
He later approached superintendent of police S.P. Balakrishnan.
Acting on his complaint, Tirupur Rural Police arrested Nagarajan, a postgraduate from Mudalipalayam. He told police Indumathi was actually his wife’s name.