Two cheat youth with fake proposal

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore police on Thursday busted a novel marriage bureau racket in the city and arrested a 30-year old woman and her male accomplice for defrauding a youth of Rs 2.5 lakh after luring him with the photograph of a woman. Police said the prime accused Sridevi had set up a fake matrimonial agency ‘Keerthana Thirumana Maalai’ at Gandhipuram solely to defraud young men who were hunting for beautiful brides. “Her modus operandi was novel. When prospective bridegrooms visited her agency, she would show them photographs of good looking girls. Once the person expressed interest in pursuing the marriage proposal, she would set up a meeting with the ‘parents’ of the girl and then use an alibi to extract money to take the proposal forward,” an investigating officer told the Express. Sridevi’s game was up when one such defrauded youth Saravanan, a worker of a garment factory in Tirupur, submitted a petition to Police Commissioner Amaresh Pujari, who directed the Central Crime Branch to investigate the case. In his complaint, Saravanan said that he had visited the ‘Keerthana Thirumana Maalai’ looking for a good alliance. “Sridevi showed me a photograph of a girl and later set up a meeting with a couple whom she introduced as the girl’s parents. When I met them at a hotel, the girl’s ‘parents’ said they were looking for a groom who was a government employee,” he said. Sensing that Saravanan was desperate to finalise the alliance, Sridevi introduced him to Ranjith Kumar, who she allegedly said had the right connections to get Saravanan a Government job. “Believing him, Saravanan paid Rs 2.5 lakh in February last year hoping to get the job. However, as there was no progress, Saravanan demanded the money back but he was threatened. After waiting all these months, he filed a complaint,” said Inspector N Ravichandran.