Koppal police arrest man for cheating 12 women with marriage promise

Shivamogga: Koppal police have arrested Jaibheem Padakoti alias Bheemarao (38) of Hittinahalli village in Vijayapura district, on charges of cheating 12 women including one from Bhadravathi in various parts of the state by posing himself as a government employee, on a matrimony app, with marriage promise and duping them of gold ornaments and money.

Superintendent of Police GK Mithunkumar said that preparations are underway to bring the accused to the district on a body warrant in the case of cheating a woman from Bhadravathi by taking cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 9.70 lakh. There is information that he has cheated more women. Action will be taken if the concerned persons file a complaint.

As many as 12 cases had been registered against him in various police stations across the state including Muddebihal, Babaleshwar, Bagalkot, Doddaballapur, Hosanagar. During the investigation, it is learnt that he had married four women.

Bheemarao, was contacting women, who were above the marriageable age and in government jobs through the matrimony app and was introducing himself as a municipal corporation employee in Davangere. Two months ago, Bheemarao had approached a woman aged around 40 serving as government employee, in Bhadravathi city, promising to marry her.

He had told the woman that his mother was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Davangere and he was in need of Rs 8 lakh for the surgery. Believing his words, the woman had given Rs 7.43 lakh to him. Later, he had taken Rs 2.25 lakh worth of gold jewellery weighing 30 grams from her and fled citing expenses for the office programme.

Explaining how he was caught, police said, a woman from Koppal, who was cheated by Bheemarao, had filed a complaint at the women's police station there. The police had arrested the accused and sent him to judicial custody. As part of the investigation, when his mobile phone call detail record (CDR) was examined, it was found that he was also in contact with the woman from Bhadravathi. When the Koppal police called the woman and told her about his past, she came to know that she had also been cheated. She then filed a complaint at the Old Town police station in Bhadravathi.

Police sources stated that Bheemarao, who did ITI, was always wearing expensive clothes and "behaving like an officer." He was known for deceiving women with his words. He had cheated the woman from Bhadravathi, whom he had promised to marry, by saying that if he did not wear gold ornaments during the wedding of his relative in Shivamogga, it would be a disgrace to his status as a government officer. Believing him, the woman had given him gold ornaments and later, money, which he asked for on the pretext of his mother's medical treatment.