Mumbai: Plans for second chance at marital bliss cost designer Rs 42 lakh

After working on the case for nine months since they received a complaint on October 14 2014 sleuths of the Cyber Crime Cell successfully arrested a man and a woman from Bengaluru on Saturday and Sunday respectively for their alleged involvement in duping a citybased fashion designer to the tune of over Rs 42 lakhThe accused have been identified as Paul Vukunveke alias Williams 32 and K Supriya Hardigs alias Mona 30 Manisha Shenoy 44 who owns a boutique in Kandivli came across the profile of one Robert Antonio on a matrimonial website Shenoy had created an account on the website in August 2014 two years after divorcing her husbandRepresentational picThe two grew close and during one of their chats the man who was claiming to be Antonio told her that he was a resident of Canada and was employed as a civil engineer with a Canadian shipping firmThe con beginsIn September Antonio told Shenoy that his mother was suffering from cancer and kidney failure for which she was undergoing treatment in Berlin Antonio told her that since he was at sea he was unable to transfer funds into his motherrsquos account for further treatmentHe requested Shenoy to do the needful and she transferred Rs 830 lakh into the bank account provided by him A few days later Antonio called Shenoy and informed her that his ship had docked in Malaysia and he would soon be taking a flight to India to meet her and her familyBut on the day of his departure Shenoy told the police that she received a call from a man claiming to be a Malaysian Customs official named Mohammad Ali Hashim The man told her that Antonio had been detained at the airport for travelling with a large amount of foreign currencyLater Shenoy received calls from Antonio and Hashim on two different occasions asking her to deposit Rs 91200 and Rs 472200 as tax on the amount Antonio was carryingA few days later she once again received a call from Hashim asking her to pay Rs 1204100 for seeking an lsquoAntiterrorism Certificatersquo for Antonio He called Shenoy again later and asked her to deposit Rs 281 lakh for appointing a lawyer for AntonioIn the last week of September Hashim called Shenoy and asked her to deposit Rs 932 lakh for seeking Customs clearances for Antonio and the cash he was carrying In the first week of October Hashim asked her to deposit Rs 249 lakh for the special accommodation services used by Antonio at the airportHe called her again the same week and asked for Rs 15 lakh to Antoniorsquos medical bills saying had been admitted at a local hospital Shenoy hadnrsquot suspected foul play so far and and had kept payingEpiphanyIt was after paying for the medical bills that Shenoy realised that she may have been duped She approached the Cyber Crime Cell and lodged a complaint on October 14 2014Cop speakCommenting on the case Senior Inspector S R Ghosalkar from Cyber Crime Cell said the accused who have been arrested used various bank accounts to con the fashion designer He said the breakthrough came after they managed to trace one of the holders of the accounts into which Shenoy had transferred money to Andhra PradeshGhosalkar said interrogation the bank account holder led them to Williams and Mona He said the duo had fooled him into letting them use the bank account ldquoFrom initial investigations it seems the two arrested accused were part of a gang and were involved in handling the money The identities of Antonio and Hashim are yet to be ascertained and we are probing that anglerdquo said GhosalkarAn official said ldquoThe accused used various bank accounts The two were booked under sections 420 cheating and 34 common intention of the IPC and relevant sections of the IT Act They have been brought to Mumbairdquo