Even as her repeated attempts to reach Nayak on the phone failed, she was in for a further shock as another woman showed up at the house claiming that Nayak was her husband.
It was then that she went to the police and filed a complaint, which eventually led to Nayak’s arrest.
SI Radha said police took the complaint that Nayak had married two women. When police tried to call him, he was unreachable. “We tracked him through his mobile phone and found that he was near Tumakuru. When we checked his call details record (CDR), all the calls were made by women. Out of curiosity, we started calling these women. After a proper conversation, they started to open up and told us they were married to Nayak.”
On July 9, a special team from Mysuru arrested Nayak. Going through his account on matrimonial websites, police found that he was in touch with another nine women who were ready to get married to him. As investigators dug deeper into the case, the outlines emerged of the life of a serial fraudster.
With his education having stopped after Class 5, Nayak spent most of his life looking for a chance to act in movies. But the chance never came. He was also not on good terms with his family – his parents and two brothers.
However, before the case that got him arrested, there has only been one other case filed against Nayak, and this was in 2013.
“The first known victim of Nayak’s deceit had filed a complaint against him in Bengaluru back in 2013, when he initially absconded. Although an initial investigation was launched, it ultimately reached a dead end due to a lack of leads. Until now, there had been no further complaints against him,” the SI said.
After the first case against him, Nayak stopped his hunt for potential brides for a few days. Then, he opened multiple accounts on online matrimonial portals, and contacted educated and affluent women who were financially independent.
“He doesn’t know how to speak English well, and many of the women rejected him because this raised their suspicion. Had this not been the case, the number of his victims would have increased,” an officer said.
One of the women he married was a doctor, and he allegedly used her clinic to stage photographs that he used to portray himself as a doctor. Using these photos, he managed to deceive other women, police said.
“Nayak’s primary targets were divorced women or women who were 35 years of age and above. But there were also some younger women who married him assuming that he was rich,” an officer said.
He allegedly paid Rs 3,000-10,000 to people to pose as his parents, relatives and friends during his wedding ceremonies. After the weddings, he would spend no more than three or four days with his new brides in rented homes with limited amenities. He would then allegedly tell them he was involved in a civil dispute and would instruct them to deny any knowledge of him if approached by police. Finally, he would disappear with the women’s jewelry or after gaining control of their properties.
“He has stolen more than Rs 3 crore in gold, money, or property from three women, including the most recent complainant,” the SI said.
“When we called these women, they were not speaking openly, and said that they did not know Nayak. They assumed that we were calling regarding the ‘civil dispute’. We had to share with them the photos of his weddings with other women to make them believe us, and then they would open up,” the SI added.
Many of the women did not file a complaint because they blamed themselves and feared the social stigma, an officer said.
