Duo behind cheating, sexually exploiting women in Pune held

PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad police have arrested two men, who are suspected to have cheated several women in Pune, Bengaluru and Gurugram on the promise of marriage after meeting them through a matrimonial site, and sexually exploiting some of them.
The duo would introduce themselves to the women as senior central government officials. A police team arrested Nishant Rameshchand Nandvana (33) and Vishal Harshad Sharma (33) from an upscale residential society in Bengaluru, where they were living with fake identities.Nandvana hails from Kishanganj in Baran district, while Sharma is from Kota. The two were brought to Pune on a transit remand and produced before a court. The court ordered their custodial remand till January 28.
Senior inspector Vivek Mugalikar of the Wakad police told TOI, “Preliminary investigation revealed that the two men were in touch with 91 women in Pune, 142 in Bengaluru and 22 in Gurugram after contacting them through matrimonial sites. Based on the details emerging so far, we have pegged the worth of cheating between Rs1.25 crore and Rs2 crore.”
The police have appealed to all the women in and around the city who might have come in contact with the two men and might have been cheated or exploited, to come forward and lodged their complaints.
Mugalikar said the two men would move in high-end four-wheelers, carry costly cellphones, Apple MacBook and laptops and sport expensive wristwatches. “Nandvana would introduce himself as a chief project manager with the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), while Sharma would present himself as a deputy director with the ‘department of central housing and urban agriculture ministry’. We have recovered 13 cellphones, laptops, a MacBook, bogus IDs, PAN and Aadhaar cards and Rs9.5 lakh in cash from the duo.”
Two of the affected women in Pune had recently approached Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner Krishna Prakash with complaints of being cheated of Rs18 lakh.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)