Vadodara: A 67-year-old man on Thursday registered a complaint of cheating against five persons, including two women, for duping him while pretending to meet him for a potential matrimonial match. Vikram Bhatt, a resident of Manjalpur, told police that he was cheated by two women who came to his house and later by three other persons, including one purported cop.Bhatt, the principal of a hotel management institute in Navsari, said that after his wife died in 2016, he advertised his search for a companion in newspapers. After his advertisement on April 2017, he received a call from a woman who identified herself as Shivani Dave. Dave told Bhatt she was a widow and lived in Nadiad.In May last year, Dave came to meet Bhatt with another woman, who she said was her sister. After a brief conversation, Dave’s sister offered to make the three of them tea. Bhatt drank the tea but soon felt dizzy. After the sisters left, he went to sleep. When he didn’t answer phone calls, a relative of Bhatt’s broke open his house door. Bhatt, who was unconscious, was then admitted to a private hospital and discharged. Bhatt later learnt that the women had stolen Rs 15,000 cash from his house along with his mobile phone worth Rs 15,000.In June 2017, Bhatt got a call from a man who identified himself H D Patel and claimed to be a cop serving at Naranpura police station in Ahmedabad. Patel told Bhatt that one Heena Patel had filed FIR against him for making indecent demands while discussing their marriage proposal. Bhatt said he didn’t have any such conversation but Patel claimed he had recordings of the conversation.Patel then asked Bhatt to settle the matter by paying Rs 35,000, to which the latter agreed. Bhatt deposited the sum in the bank account of T B Barot, between June 19 and June 22, 2017. Patel told Bhatt that Heena would withdraw the case and he would send the recordings to Bhatt. Bhatt never received the recordings.After a few days, Bhatt got a call from a man who called himself Vyas and claimed to be working for a newspaper. Vyas told Bhatt about the same woman and asked for Rs 55,000 to settle the case. Bhatt again deposited the sum in the same bank account, between June 27 and July 11, 2017 and demanded the recordings which he didn’t get earlier. He then approached Manjalpur police, who inquired about the case and filed a complaint.

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