Couple absconding for five years held for running fake marriage racket in Delhi

New Delhi: A couple who had been absconding for five years for allegedly running a fake marriage racket to extort money has been arrested, police said on Saturday.

The accused, Rahul alias Din Mohammad (38) and his wife (36), were apprehended from Jahangirpuri, officials said.

They were wanted in a 2019 case registered at Sultanpuri police station. The couple, along with their associates, allegedly lured people seeking marriage, drugged them, and forcibly conducted fake marriages to extort money, a police officer said.

In 2019, a victim had reported that the couple had coerced her into marrying a man from Haryana under the influence of intoxicants, he said.

While some gang members were arrested earlier, the couple remained at large and were declared proclaimed offenders in September 2019, police said.

A police team was tracking them, and an officer, posing as a prospective groom, contacted them. The couple fell into the trap and agreed to meet, following which they were arrested on Friday, officials said.

During interrogation, it was revealed that the couple posed as mediators and extorted around Rs 70,000 from victims under the pretense of arranging marriages. Rahul, now working as an e-rickshaw driver, had a past case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, while his wife was previously involved in two similar fraud cases, police added.