Palakkad: Five persons who used to carry out marriage fraud after presenting women as brides, were arrested by the police.
The brainchild behind the fraud and Thrissur native Sunil, Karthekeyan of Keralassery Palakkad, Sajitha, Devi and Sahida of Palakkad were arrested.
The Kozhinjampara police took the accused into custody following a complaint filed by a native of Salem.
The fraud took place on December 12. Manikandan, a resident of Salem who had given a matrimonial advertisement, became the victim of the fraudsters.
Manikandan was brought to the Gopalapuram border and his marriage was performed with Sajitha at a local temple. The reason given by the gang for hasty marriage was that the bride’s mother was unwell hence the ceremony required to be performed immediately. They also took Rs 1.5 lakh from Manikandan as commission for arranging the marriage.
On the evening of the marriage day, Sajitha and Karthekeyan who posed as the brother of the bride, reached Manikandan’s house in Salem. The next day they told him that Sajitha’s mother was not well and the duo returned to Kerala.
Once they left, their phones stopped functioning.
As they could not be contacted over phone for almost a week, Manikandan became suspicious. Subsequently, he along with his friends conducted an enquiry and realized that the entire episode was a big fraud.
A complaint was filed with the Kozhinjampara police and subsequently with the help of the Cyber Police the accused were traced and arrested. The police said that the accused had confessed that they had defrauded 50 persons in a similar manner in the past.
The accused were produced before the Chittoor Magistrate Court and remanded in custody.
