PUNE: A 21-year-old third-year electrical engineering diploma student from Padmavati lost Rs10 lakh between Oct 1 and Nov 20 last year to crooks who lured her with an offer to facilitate her entry as India’s representative at an Ms Inter-Continental beauty pageant in Egypt.
Police said the girl’s parents took a Rs10 lakh loan to fund her participation in the pageant.
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“Two of the cheats are from Haryana, while one is from Gujarat. The victim even met one of them in New Delhi and Jaipur,” senior inspector Chhagan Kapse of the Sahakarnagar police told TOI.
Kapse said the student regularly participated in beauty pageants. The cheats exploited this by contacting and asking her to participate in an event in Jaipur, which would eventually help her represent the country at the bigger contest in Egypt.
“She got her parents to pay Rs10 lakh online to the crooks for passport, airfare and visa to Egypt, among other charges,” he said.
The officer said the victim visited Jaipur for the event, but the crooks told her that she had been directly selected to represent India in Egypt.
“Later, they also sent her an international travel ticket on her social media account. The victim later discovered that the airline ticket was fake. She also realised she was tricked when her name did not appear as an Indian representative at the contest in Egypt,” Kapse said.
“The crooks later stopped communicating with the victim and did not refund the money,” he said, adding that the woman initially filed a complaint application with the Sahakarnagar police, and post-verification of the same, an FIR relating to cheating was registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
