Bhubaneswar: The Cyber Unit of Odisha Crime Branch has arrested a person on charges of exploiting several women, both sexually and financially, after marrying them deceitfully.

The accused has been identified as Biranchi Narayan Nath of Chhendipada in Angul district.

The accused was mainly targeting middle-aged and divorced women as well as widows by identifying himself as railway official, Income Tax officer and senior staffer at Customs and Central Excise Department.

The Cyber Crime Unit revealed that the accused had cheated several women in Odisha as well as in states like Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.

According to the police, the accused used to approach the women through matrimonial sites.

Initially, the accused was approaching the women by sending them requests for marriage through the websites. Subsequently, he made phone calls to the women and persuaded them for marriage by promising lifelong support.

He even promised a few women of arranging jobs for them after marriage. Nath tied the knot with several women fraudulently and cohabitated with them, said the cops while revealing details regarding the modus operandi of the accused.

“The accused used to capture his intimate moments with the women secretly and later extort money from them through blackmailing,” said the Cyber Crime Unit.

The accused used multiple names including Manas Ratha, Pravakar Srivastav and Biranchi Narayan Rath to cheat the women.

The Crime Branch of Odisha Police had registered a case against Nath on the basis of a complaint lodged by a woman in Cuttack.

The accused had married the woman fraudulently last year.

The woman had registered herself for second marriage in one matrimonial site after the death of her husband two years ago.

The accused approached her by identifying himself as Pravakar Srivastav, a TTI in Indian Railways. He tied the knot with the woman and kept physical relationship with her.

He later extorted Rs 5 lakh in cash and 32 grams of gold from the woman by threatening the make her private photos and videos public.

The police registered a case against the accused under various Sections of the IPC and the IT Act. The cops have seized private photos and videos of several women as well as digital evidence to the crime from the accused.

Nath had earlier been booked in cases of cheating at various police stations in Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Rourkela, Balasore, Angul and Dhenkanal, said the cops.