New Delhi: Police arrested a computer science graduate for cheating 50 women of at least Rs 90 lakh after taking a cue from Bollywood movie ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ and another on master conman Charles Shobhraj.
Arrested on a victim’s complaint, Tarun Poddar, 24, used to meet gullible women in five-star hotels, introducing himself as a well-known author on the social media or the operations head of a company, Deputy Commissioner of Police Vijay Kumar told IANS.
To impress his potential victims, Tarun allegedly showed them fake identity cards of reputed MNCs and posted fake pictures on his Facebook page and other social media platforms.
The officer said Tarun also travelled in high-end cars along with two bodyguards so as to impress the women. Posing as a writer, he showed the women a forged cover of a book to claim he was its real author.
The accused was impressed by the character of Charles Sobhraj in ‘Main aur Charles’ movie apart from ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ in which Ranveer Singh played conman Ricky who cheats women.
Tarun was arrested from his residence in west Delhi’s Rani Bagh.
“A native of Darbhanga in Bihar, Tarun duped the complainant after meeting her in a cab pool ride. He convinced her that he had good contacts in high places and reputed schools in NCR-Delhi,” he said.
“The complainant had sought Tarun’s help for admission of a relative’s child in a school, for which he demanded Rs 12 lakh. The woman paid him over Rs 8 lakh. He fooled her by sending emails in the name of the said school regarding confirmation of the admission.”
The complainant found she had been cheated when she approached the school authorities. Tarun started avoiding taking her calls, following which she filed a police complaint on May 29, the DCP said.
During interrogation, Tarun claimed he had duped 50 women in Delhi and Jaipur through a similar modus operandi.
He had been arrested earlier by Rajasthan Police for cheating a woman, the DCP said.
IANS