‘Daku Dulhan’ who duped 12 grooms arrested in UP

LUCKNOW: She was Kajal in Gujarat, Seema in Haryana, Neha in Bihar and Sweety in Uttar Pradesh. At 21, she has been married at least a dozen times, but never for more than a few hours. Tragedy strikes her every time like a script: she is abducted straight from her wedding venue, or soon afterwards, with all her jewellery, cash and other valuables, by a gang of 4-5 men. Her grooms never get to hear from her. And the distraught bride is soon back on matrimonial websites and other social media platforms, looking for fresh preys!'Daku Dulhan', as they call her, is Gulshana Riaz Khan in real life, married to Riyaz Khan, a tailor in UP's Jaunpur, who has no qualms in taking a 5% cut on the booties she nets for the gang.On Thursday, Gulshana was arrested by Ambedkar Nagar police along with other eight members of her gang. Ambedkar Nagar SP Keshav Kumar said the gang's run ended near Kasadaha village under Baskhari police limits, where a police team caught all nine members red-handed. Those arrested include five women and four men, all part of the highly coordinated syndicate. Police recovered Rs 72,000 cash, one motorcycle, one gold mangalsutra, 11 mobile phones and three fake Aadhaar cards from them.The arrested were identified as Mohanlal (34) of Jind, Haryana; Ratan Kumar Saroj (32) of Jaunpur; Ranjan alias Ashu Gautam (22) of Jaunpur; Rahul Raj (30) of Ambedkar Nagar; Sanno alias Sunita (36) of Ambedkar Nagar; Poonam (33) of Ambedkar Nagar; Manju Mali (29) of Jaunpur and Rukhsar (21) of Ambedkar Nagar who posed as relatives of ‘Seema' of Jaunpur.In the latest case, the gang duped Sonu, a resident of Rohtak in Haryana, demanding Rs 80,000 for a wedding that never happened. Gulshana or her gang mostly approached families that were not able to find suitable match."On the wedding day, soon after the ceremony, male members of the gang abducted the bride and made good with all valuables," said the officer. In this case, Sonu informed UP 112 that his bride was abducted by men on bikes. "We blocked all roads and sounded an alert, following which one member was held and grilled and he spilled the beans and helped arrest all gang members," said the SP.The accused confessed to have duped at least 12 families using the same modus operandi — often changing identities and locations to stay ahead of the law. Police said the woman produced fake identity documents to win trust. Once the "settlement amount", the money her gang took from the groom's side for finding the match, was handed over, the bride vanished. Kumar said a case was registered against the accused under various sections of the BNS related to cheating, criminal conspiracy, and forgery, and further investigation is on to identify more victims and possible accomplices.