The Koyambedu police have arrested a 35-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh for allegedly cheating women through a matrimonial website, posing as a prospective groom and stealing their gold jewellery.

The accused, identified as Chella Narayanan, 35, of Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, was arrested on Friday and brought to Chennai for further investigation.

According to the police, the case was registered based on a complaint filed by a 30-year-old divorced woman from Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, who works for a pharmaceutical company in Hyderabad. The woman, who has a seven-year-old son, had registered on a matrimonial website seeking a second marriage.

Investigators said Narayanan contacted the complainant through the matrimonial portal and gained her confidence over the course of a month.

On July 5, he asked her to travel to Chennai, where he arranged accommodation at a lodge in Koyambedu before taking her to the Nithya Perumal Temple near Mamallapuram.

During the visit, he allegedly convinced the woman to hand over her jewellery for safekeeping. After they returned to the lodge, he fled with the valuables while the woman was in the restroom.

The stolen jewellery included a seven-grams gold chain and two gold rings weighing four grams and two grams respectively. When repeated attempts to contact him failed, the victim realised she had been duped and lodged a complaint with the Koyambedu police.

During the investigation, the police found that the accused had allegedly employed the same modus operandi in another case on June 19, in which he is accused of cheating a woman of 44 grams of gold jewellery. The police said he committed the latest offence while absconding in the earlier case.

Further enquiries revealed that Narayanan has multiple criminal cases pending against him in Andhra Pradesh, including cases involving murder, theft, cheating, and offences under the POCSO Act. The police are investigating whether he targeted more women through matrimonial platforms.

Published - July 11, 2026 09:51 pm IST