Representative image of gold jewellery.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: A 30-year-old woman in Kerala duped at least ten people by marrying them and decamping with the gold they presented.
A native of Kochi, Reshma was held just ahead of a cheating attempt in the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. After subsequent quizzing, she revealed to the police about her cheating spree since 2014.
The modus operandi of Reshma, who is a mother of a two-year-old child, was to get in touch with youths registered on online matrimonial sites.
She would make them believe that she is an adopted daughter and her adoptive mother used to harass her and was not in favour of her marriage.
Carried away by her 'emotional story', the youths volunteered to marry her and meet all marriage expenses. After a few days of marriage, she would leave stating various reasons like taking education certificates from home.
Her latest target was a panchayat member from the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram. The panchayat member made all the arrangements for the marriage and it was fixed for June 6.
Reshma reached Thiruvananthapuram on June 5 and was staying at the house of a friend of the panchayat member. A woman in the house became suspicious and shared it with the panchayat member.
Subsequently they searched her bag, while she went to beauty parlour for bridal make up, and found certain documents related to her earlier marriage. The police were swiftly alerted and hence she landed in police custody.
It is learnt that she had her first marriage in 2014 and had also given marriage offers to two other youths for the coming weeks.
Reshma has been remanded to judicial custody and kept at the women's prison in Thiruvananthapuram.