Lucknow:
A 40-year-old man has been arrested in Lucknow for allegedly posing as an Army captain to woo women into relationships and then duping them of lakhs. Police have said Haider Ali, originally from Odisha’s Balasore district, would introduce himself as Hartik Beglo, an officer of the Army Medical Corps, and lure women into relationships. He would then ask them for money, citing various reasons. Once he got the money, he would end all communication, move to a different state and look for the next target.
The imposter, police said, would lead a luxurious lifestyle with money he made from such frauds. Luck ran out when he met a Lucknow woman and she smelled a rat. The woman registered a police complaint and a probe began. Police were shocked by the revelations. They found that Haider Ali had worked in security firms across several cities across Hyderabad, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. In each of these cities, he targeted women and then fled.
Police have found that he would post photographs in Army uniform on multiple Instagram profiles with names such as ‘Indiancammandoharik’, ‘armanbeglo’, ‘armybeglo’, ‘soldiers3889’.
Police have recovered an Army uniform, three-star flaps, an Army beret, a fake Aadhaar card, an Army canteen card and other incriminating documents from Haider Ali and are now investigating if he has a criminal record.
Senior police officer Nipun Agarwal said the complainant told police that the accused cheated her into a physical relationship and then duped her of money. “We arrested him and questioned him. His original name is Haider Ali Beg. He hid his religion and introduced himself as Hardik Beglo and lured several women into relationships and duped them. He talked them into financing cars for him and also borrowed huge sums from them. We are also scanning his call records to locate the women he targeted. He has told us about four women so far,” the senior officer said.
