Woman dupes man of Rs 40 lakh, buys car and builds a house with money

VIJAYAPURA: A couple hailing from a village in Channarayapatna taluk in Hassan has been arrested for cheating and blackmailing a young man to the tune of Rs 40 lakh after befriending him on social media. They had purchased 100 gm of gold, a Hyundai car, a motorcycle with the money and had even taken up construction of a multi-storeyed house with the money.

The house which Manjula and her husband Swamy were constructing.

Parameshwar Hipparagi, who hails from Bagalur village in Sindagi taluk and is working in Telangana, befriended Manjula, who hails from Dasarahalli village in Channarayapatna taluk on Facebook. Initially, on the pretext of her mother’s illness, she took Rs 10,000 from him. She had also told him that she was preparing for the UPSC examinations.

Manjula and her husband were picked up by the police from her native village.

Manjula even got Parameshwar share nude videos of himself and later used that to blackmail him. Over a period of time, Parameshwar had coughed up Rs 40 and when he realised that he had been duped, he lodged a complaint with the CEN police.

Manjula and her husband Swamy; (below) the victim Parameshwar Hipparagi.

Vijayapura Superintendent of Police Anand Kumar said a police team arrested Manjula from her native village. Interestingly, during investigation, the police found that her husband Swamy was the mastermind in the entire episode. Both have been remanded to judicial custody, he added.