Kanpur's ‘dhokebaaz' inspired by Bollywood con films nabbed

He was a judge, an IAS officer, and an IPS officer, depending on the day. In reality, he was a conman, probably with a PhD in deception, who targeted divorced and widowed women on the pretext of marriage, only to cheat them out of lakhs.

- 

His game was over last month when one of his victims filed a complaint and the police caught him for a nearly Rs 60 lakh fraud. What was intriguing is that there was no photograph to nab him as he reprimanded anyone tryting to click his photo, saying he was a legal officer.

A 46-year-old resident of Kanpur's Nawabganj, Vishnu Shankar Gupta, had a knack for slipping into roles that commanded respect and trust. He would pose as a judicial officer under the alias "Anshuman Vikram", claiming to be an Additional District Judge (ADJ). With this fabricated identity, he targeted women, particularly divorcees and widows, offering them companionship and financial benefits like luxury cars and land.