Mumbai: Police Nabs Man From Varanasi for Duping Goregaon Woman of Over Rs 4,00,000 by Using AI Tools

By using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, the Bangur Nagar police arrested a man from Varanasi. He was accused of duping lakhs of rupees from a 31-year-old woman he met through a matrimonial site. He promised to marry that woman and then looted her. The accused is identified as Sunil Kumar Prajapati, 36. Police told Mid Day that Prajapati first earned the trust of the woman by promising to marry her. Then, as time passed, he started to ask her for money. After taking lakhs of rupees, he cut off all the ties and blocked the woman’s mobile number.

The police used AI-powered tools like PimEyes and Reverse Image Search. PimEyes is a facial recognition search engine, and Reverse Image Search helps in tracing Prajapati’s digital footprint. With these tools, the investigators matched online images and identified the real identity of the accused.

The 31-year-old woman is working as a security guard now. She got married in 20026 but parted ways with her husband due to frequent disputes. From her first marriage, she has a 12-year-old daughter. In 2021, the woman and her daughter moved in with her parents in Goregaon. She decided to go for a second marriage and registered on a matrimonial site after her parents insisted. Then, on the site woman came in contact with Prajapati. He claimed that he was married, but his wife left him, and he was looking for a second life partner. Then both of them exchanged phone numbers and spoke regularly on WhatsApp, calls, and video calls. They decided to get married.

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After this decision, Prajapati started demanding money under various pretexts. The complainant said she transferred Rs 4,86,416 online. When she asked him to return the money, he cut off all ties and blocked her.

Prajapati's cell phone number was infrequently turned off. An officer stated, "It seemed that he had only used the number to speak with the complainant. Aside from two pictures that he sent her at her request and one that was taken as a screenshot during a video call, we had no idea where he was."

"We tracked down Prajapati's social media profiles using cutting-edge AI tools like PimEyes, reverse image search, and facial recognition technology. We were able to locate him in Varanasi by following his IP address," a Bangur Nagar cop stated.

Then police checked his call data records and learned that he frequently ordered food online and used rented private cars for traveling regularly. Police then traced one of the car drivers and gained information about him. Prajapti was very cautious and knew ways to avoid detection. When he ordered food, he gave a different address or asked the delivery guy to hand it outside the hotel premises.

When the police interrogated the cab driver, he said that Prajapati liked sweets from a sweet shop outside Varanasi city. Prajapati was a resident of Mirzapur. He specifically asked the cab driver to bring him sweets whenever he visited the city, even if he had other passengers on board. When police got to know about his fondness for sweets, they made a plan to nab him. They asked the driver to inform Prajapati that he would bring sweets for him. Policeman accompanied the driver, and when Prajapati came down to collect the sweets police arrested him.

Last week he was produced before the court and he confessed to looting the woman.