Bhubaneswar: The Cyber Crime Unit of CID, Crime Branch of Odisha Police has arrested a matrimonial conman on charges of exploiting several women across the State.
The Crime Branch arrested the man and identified him as Biranchi Narayan Nath of Chhendipada of Angul district. He was arrested for exploiting sexually as well as financially, several middle-aged women, looking for second marriage.
Biranchi had created a profile on a matrimonial website, under the tagline “Second Marriage,” and disguised himself as Railway Employee/ Income Tax Inspector or Officer in Customs & Central Excise Department etc. He targeted middle-aged women who were unmarried, separated, widows or divorced.
Initially, he used to approach the victims, sending marriage requests through the website. This was followed by phone conversations and later visits to their home. He emotionally manipulated them by promising lifelong support for their children and companionship.
Many women were attracted by Biranchi’s fake profile and fell into the trap. He also promised many of his victims to get them job after marriage. He underwent marriage rituals with many of his victims in temples and later cohabited with them at their home but never took any of them to his own place.
The accused secretly captured the intimate moments with them and also took nude photos and videos of many of victims through video calls. He later extorted money from the victims in shape of cash, gold and other valuables by threatening them to make public their private photos and videos on social media, if they did not adhere to his demand.
The accused used multiple names such as Manas Ratha @ Pravakar Srivastav @ Biranchi Narayan Nath etc.
In the instant case registered by Cyber Crime Unit of CID-CB, the victim is a woman from Cuttack who had lost her husband in a road accident in year 2022 and was living with her two daughters. In order to have a safe and secure future for herself and her children, she decided to remarry.
She had also registered in the same matrimonial portal in October 2023 for a second marriage, in which the accused had many fake profiles. She received a request from one Pravakar Srivastav, aged 43, from Khamar, Talcher. He claimed to be a TTI in Railways at Visakhapatnam. He stated that he had lost his wife and mother and was living with his father, who he claimed was a manager at SBI in Rourkela.
On October 7, 2023, Pravakar visited the victim’s home and expressed his desire to proceed with the marriage proposal. While the victim’s family asked for some time to decide, he started calling her frequently and trapped her emotionally.
During video calls, he clandestinely captured her nude videos. He later took her on trips outside Odisha too. Using those videos he forced her into physical relationship at multiple locations.
After a deceitful marriage, he lived with her in her house for five months and continued to exploit her sexually and financially. He also physically assaulted her, whenever she resisted. The victim endured this abuse out of fear of public humiliation due to the threat of her private videos being made public. He extracted around Rs.5 lakh and 32 grams of gold from her.
The victim eventually discovered that Pravakar was involved in similar relationships with other women, prompting her to report the matter to the authorities. Based on her complaint, CID, Crime Branch Cybercrime PS has registered a case vide No. 52 dated 12.09.2024 U/S 323/ 384/ 385/ 419/ 420/ 465/ 467/ 468/ 469 IPC, R/W Sec 66(E), 67, and 67(A) of the IT Act.
During the investigation, a team of officers from CID-CB arrested the accused and discovered that he had defrauded numerous other women too. Cases have been registered against him at various police stations, including Baidyanathpur PS in Berhampur, two in Angul Town PS and Jarpada PS in Angul, Balasore Sadar PS, Chhend PS in Rourkela, , Dhenkanal Town PS in Dhenkanal, and Nayapalli PS and Balipatna PS in Bhubaneswar.
He has also been involved in similar cases in the state of Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Hariyana, Delhi Significant digital evidence, including private photographs, videos of several women and fake IDs have been recovered from him and they are being analyzed to determine his involvement in other cases.
