Police have arrested a 36-year-old man from Palghar district of Maharashtra for allegedly using a matrimonial website to befriend and rape several women after luring them on the pretext of marriage, an official said on Wednesday.
The Navi Mumbai police arrested the accused, Sachin Sambre, last week, the official said.
“On May 31, a woman lawyer had lodged a complaint that the accused established physical relationship with her by promising to marry her,” inspector Tukaram Nimbalkar of Rabale Police Station said.
“Based on her complaint, the police launched a probe.
The accused, a graduate in management studies, worked at a private company in Thane city. After the complaint, he went absconding, but was finally traced in Vikramgad last week,” he added.
After collecting the case details, police arrested him, he said.
“During the probe, it was found that the accused was already married and had a son. Nonetheless, he created his profile on a matrimonial site. He would pose as a groom and pretend that he was looking for a bride from himself,” Nimbalkar said.
“He would befriend unmarried women through the website and establish physical relationship with them on the false promise of marriage. He would also extort money from them,” he said, adding that the police have so far found that the accused had duped at least a dozen women in this manner.
Police have booked Sambre under IPC sections 376 (rape), 417 (cheating) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and others, the official said.
He has been remanded into police custody till July 4, he said.
Police suspect that the accused may have duped some more women this way.