Stranger's FB request leaves woman scarred for life

Accepting a Facebook friend request from an unknown person proved costly for a 31-year old woman, who ended up undergoing five abortions and losing lakhs of rupees.

She had to knock on the doors of 'Parihar', a charitable organisation that supervises the women and children helpline at the police commissioner's office. She is currently undergoing counselling.

Akash (name changed), aged about 35, hailing from Kerala, sent a friend request to Deeksha (name changed) on Facebook, which she accepted a few days later. They started chatting on a regular basis and became good friends. During this time, Akash lied to her that he was living abroad and belonged to a wealthy family.

In 2014, they got married against her parents' wishes and she moved from her PG accommodation to a rented house. The couple, however, failed to get their marriage registered. He duped her, saying he was building a house abroad for them and urgently needed money. He then asked her to borrow over Rs 3 lakh. She took a loan and continues to repay it. He also forced her to give him Rs 25,000 every month. This continued for the next two years, during which Akash got her aborted five times.

In 2016, Akash married another woman in Kerala and got the marriage registered. After his second marriage, he used to live two weeks alternatively with each of them. A few weeks later, Deeksha forced him to get their marriage registered in Bengaluru.

Deeksha called Akash when he was away and got suspicious when she heard Malayalam being spoken in the background. She started investigating his claims. It was then that she found out that she was being cheated for over two years.

"The woman slipped into depression and approached us for help. She was desperate to get back to him. We counselled her and advised her to get herself treated for depression. Now, she's doing much better and wants the man to be punished," said Rani Shetty, the in-charge of Parihar.