Mumbai: A Lucknow-born Australian citizen was arrested on June 25 from Mumbai airport for duping a Pune woman of Rs3.6 crore on the pretext of marriage. After a tip-off, he was detained at the airport and handed over to the Pune cyber police on the same day. The accused, Abhishek Shukla, 42, used a fake profile ‘Dr Rohit Oberai’ and chatted with as many as 3,194 women. It is yet to be ascertained how many of them he duped monetarily.

According to the police, Shukla created a dummy account on a matrimonial site and connected with a 40-yearold divorced woman from Kharadi in Pune. Shukla gained the woman’s trust and asked her if she was interested in a start-up as he could help her with funding. The woman agreed and transferred Rs3.6 crore to him in four different accounts, including one in Singapore.

Shukla then went abroad and started avoiding her calls. In September 2024, he mailed the woman from another account impersonating as a friend, saying he had died of cancer. The victim suffered mental trauma following the news but was later counselled to contact 1930 toll free number and Pune cyber cell.

Additional Commissioner of Police (crime, Pune) Pankaj Deshmukh said the man mostly targeted divorced women.