Surat: He waited for years to find a suitable bride.
But when he found one in Surat, this young businessman’s married life lasted for only a few hours.
The woman turned out to be a fraudster who conned him of Rs two lakh.
Ankit Jain, a 38-year-old businessman from Chikmagalur in Karnataka, recently found a bride named Swati Bhatt through a middleman named Satish Patel in Surat.
Patel had sent Bhatt’s photo through WhatsApp to Jain and he immediately agreed for marriage.
Patel told Jain that he will have to pay Rs 1.7 lakh to Bhatt’s brother Hitesh Trivedi and his commission of Rs 20,000.
When Jain and his mother came to Surat on June 4, he gave Rs 1.5 lakh to Trivedi and Rs 15,000 to Patel.
Jain’s mother gave Bhatt a gold ring worth Rs 20,000, silver anklets worth Rs 1,400 and a saree.
Later, they went to a temple on the bank of Tapi River near Kapodra and got married in a simple ceremony.
After the ritual, when Jain, his mother and Bhatt were going to his uncle’s home at Parvat Patiya, Bhatt asked him to stop the car near Rachana Circle in Kapodra under the pretext of going to the washroom and having snacks.
Bhatt went into the washroom but did not come out for a long time.
Jain and his mother searched for her, but they could not find her, so he called Trivedi.
However, Jain’s calls were not answered so he called Patel.
Patel and his wife reached there and told Jain to search for Bhatt there and they would look for Trivedi at his home.
But, later, when Patel’s phone was also switched off, Jain realized that he was conned.
He lodged a complaint of cheating at Varachha police station on Saturday night.
“We are close to arresting one man who had helped them, but until the kingpin Patel is not found, it will be difficult to know whether the gang has conned others or not,” said sub-inspector J S Mahida.