Kabir Singh inspired me, says Delhi man who conned women into extortion by posing as orthopaedic surgeon

Inspired by Shahid Kapoor-starrer Bollywood movie Kabir Singh, a 31-year-old man allegedly posed as an orthopaedic surgeon on dating websites and extorted money from gullible women, police said.

The police have arrested the accused Anand Kumar and his co-conspirator Priyam Yadav.

The matter came to light after police received a complaint from a doctor who was conned by Kumar.

Kumar created a fake profile on Tinder app and identified himself as Dr Rohit Gujral to the doctor after which both of them started talking to each other.

A still from Kabir Singh. YouTube screengrab

Kumar also promised that he would marry her and made her transfer Rs 30,000 into his bank account. He also blackmailed her by threatening to expose her private pictures and videos, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy said Kumar used to run an event management firm and was in touch with a lot of men and women who aspired to become models and actors.

"He used the pictures of one of these men to create fake profile on various dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and matrimonial sites like Jeevan Saathi, by the name of Dr. Rohit Gujral, claiming to be an orthopaedic surgeon," he said.

In the movie Kabir Singh, Shahid Kapoor portrays the character of an orthopaedic surgeon.

During interrogation, Kumar told the police that the whole idea of identifying himself as a doctor came after he watched the movie Kabir Singh.

He then created a profile in such a way that it attracts women, Kumar said during interrogation, police said.

Once he connected with the women, he would exchange numbers and start talking to them. On the pretext of his mother's treatment, he would avoid video calls with them and within a few days, would convince them about his seriousness to marry them. He would also ask the women to send their private pictures and videos, police said.

Kumar also cooked up a false story to blackmail the women.

To extort money, he would tell the women that he has a friend named ''Anand'' who was upset with him as he had slept with his sister.

"He told the women that Anand was blackmailing him because he had private photos of him with his sister," the DCP said.

"Kumar would ask the women to meet Anand, a proposal which would be often rejected by them. To extract money from them, Kumar would then start blackmailing the women by threatening them of making their private photos and videos public. He would lie about his mother's health so that the women give him more money," the DCP said.

"Kumar had been doing this for four months and conned many women. A few of them thought that he was in a ''difficult situation'' but would marry them eventually. One woman even applied for a loan of Rs 5 lakhs for Kumar," he added.

Police said Kumar was traced through his ID and arrested from Lajpat Nagar. They found that Kumar has an associate named Priyam Yadav, who had given his bank details to Kumar to receive the money from the women.

by Press Trust of India