Venkat Ratna Reddy tried to scam a Canadian too.
Hyderabad police arrested a 40-year-old man for duping an Indian American woman of Rs. 20 lakh (about $29,946) after marrying her posing as an officer of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.
The Central Crime Station (CCS) unit of the Hyderabad Police arrested K. Venkat Ratna Reddy after finding that he is a habitual offender who had earlier served a jail term for posing as a revenue officer and trying to extort Rs. 12 lakh from a film producer in Hyderabad.
India Today reported that Reddy, a married undergraduate, created a fake profile in a popular matrimonial website and started searching for prospective brides. Finally, he found an Indian American girl and married her.
He traveled to the US to marry the girl after obtaining a passport and a business visa from Visakhapatnam. His fluency in English and excellent communication skills impressed the family of the bride. After 20 days of marriage, Reddy took $30,000 (approximately Rs 20 lakh) from the woman and returned to India.
After realizing that they were cheated, the family filed a complaint with Hyderabad police leading to Reddy’s arrest. The police found that Reddy had tried to cheat a Canadian woman in the same manner after marrying the NRI girl.
“The accused obtained passport from Visakhapatnam and went to USA on a business visa. After marrying a woman there, he tried to cheat another family in Canada by trapping another woman. He obtained a license to marry in Canada,” ACP, Cyber Crime, Raghuveer was quoted as saying by New Indian Express.
“We will write to matrimonial portal managements to keep track and take down his profile. We will also write to Visakhapatnam Special Branch police to find out how they allowed the accused to get a passport when he was involved in several cases,’’ the ACP said.
The inquiry found that Reddy’s profile on a social networking site has more than 350 girlfriends. Reddy was sent to jail in 2012 for demanding money from Telugu cine producers C Kalyan and Ramesh Babu after posing as a revenue officer.