LUCKNOW:  A 40-year-old man was detained for allegedly taking advantage of ladies and defrauding them of money by pretending to be a judge,  police said.

By posting a matrimonial advertisement asking for proposals, ideally from a "judge," the Lucknow police cyber cell set a trap for the perpetrator, who was later identified as Vishnu Shanker Gupta.

Gupta has a law degree and has had some experience working in a court.

Investigation Officer, Firoz Badar, said that "He targeted divorcees or widows. His main victim was a woman, who he defrauded of cash worth Rs. 43.5 lakh, jewellery worth Rs. 5 lakh, and two Apple phones for Rs. 3.3 lakh in addition to sexually abusing her." The police official said, Gupta would entice the credulous victims by making extravagant claims about his wealth in money and real estate.

After the victim consented to be married, he would demand cash, claiming that he needed between Rs 20 and Rs 25 lakh to register a piece of land.

Recently, a case related to this was filed at the Hazratganj police station.

Vishnu has confessed to having duped 15 to 20 women so far.

"His targets were affluent women, besides widows or divorcees. Through newspaper adverts, he used to get in touch with them. He had stated that he was a judge on his profile information "said Badar.

The accused Vishnu admitted that he was having difficulties while practising law.  It was then that he decided to dupe the widows/divorcees from well-off families.

The police source said, "Being a lawyer, he was aware of judges and their assignments and hence mentioned himself as a judge of some faraway area of Uttar Pradesh.

Sr. Punjab Police official arrested for taking Rs 1 cr bribe

'Have s*x with me, everything will be fine..,' Father-in-law told daughter-in-law

19-year-old girl gang-raped in UP, accused absconding