Mumbai: Taking note of the rising cases of women being cheated on matrimonial sites, a sessions court recently convicted and sentenced a 44-year-old man, Jayendra Moranjan, also known by aliases such as Chetak Bhavsar, Sachin Misal, and Rahul Patil, to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. He was found guilty of repeatedly raping a nurse on the false promise of marriage and cheating her of Rs 1.5 lakh in 2016. Three other victims deposed during trial, helping nail him. The nurse, who was divorced when she met the accused on the matrimonial site, also became pregnant and aborted the foetus after discovering that he was a cheat. However, refusing to grant the maximum sentence of life imprisonment, the judge noted that the accused was not previously convicted and was not a “person beyond repair”.Additional sessions judge SJ Ansari also fined the accused Rs 75,000. This amount will have to be paid to the victim as compensation. “As regards the imposition of fine, I am of the view that considering the amount of money which the accused cheated the victim out of, he, in spite of being in jail for years, i.e., from July 19, 2016, cannot be let off only with the imposition of a bare minimum fine. This is because the interests of the victim are also to be protected,” the judge said.The victim, a nurse and divorced since 2004, registered on matrimonial sites in 2016 to seek a new partner. In June 2016, she received an email from the accused, who introduced himself as ‘Rahul Patil’ and a project head at a company. Their initial interactions quickly escalated. On June 19, 2016, after expressing mutual liking, the accused insisted they travel to Shirdi, claiming he made an oath to visit the Saibaba temple with his fiancée once his marriage was settled. The victim, believing in his intentions to marry her, accompanied him. Upon reaching Shirdi late on June 19, 2016, they checked into a lodge. There, the accused forcibly established physical relations with the victim, assuring her that their marriage was imminent. Distraught but relying on his promise, she did not report the incident. The pattern repeated the following night in Shirdi after they visited the victim’s sisters in Nashik, where the accused also discussed their marriage. The fraudulent acts extended beyond physical assault. On June 23, 2016, while watching a film at a mall, the accused secretly removed the victim’s ATM card from her purse, which had the PIN number written on its cover. Between June 24 and July 5, 2016, the accused fraudulently withdrew a total of Rs 1.5 lakh from her account using the stolen card.
