NAGPUR: In a plot straight out of a crime thriller, 35-year-old Sameera Fatima was arrested on Wednesday afternoon for allegedly duping at least eight men into marriage, and extorting money from them under the threat of legal action. The accused, who had been absconding for months, was finally caught in a dramatic trap by her latest husband along with Nagpur police at the famous Dolly Ki Tapri in Civil Lines.
Sameera's modus operandi was as calculated as it was cunning. She would target already married men of a particular community on social media or matrimonial sites, presenting herself as a widowed schoolteacher seeking emotional companionship. After gaining sympathy, she would push for a registered marriage. Soon after tying the knot, her tone would change.
She would allegedly begin mentally harassing the husbands, secretly recording conversations, coercing them to speak ill about others, and later using edited voice clips to create misunderstandings. In several cases, she filed complaints of adultery and harassment against them. Then came the extortion, where she would offer to retract the cases in exchange for money. In this manner, she allegedly extorted lakhs from each man. FIRs have been registered against her at Mankapur, Jaripatka, and Pauni police stations.
Her last husband, Ghulam Pathan, who had married her in 2022, filed an FIR against her in 2024 for taking a Rs 10 lakh cheque from him and filing false complaints. To evade arrest, she had taken refuge at a madarsa in Mominpura, allegedly with help from a maulana named Imran. While the cops had zeroed down on her after Pathan's complaint, she was seven months pregnant and got admitted to Mayo Hospital. Fatima then transferred herself to a private hospital, from where she vanished.
Pathan, working with his lawyer and the police, helped arrest her on Wednesday. Pathan told TOI that Fatima had approached him to withdraw the FIR against her. "I spoke with my lawyers and the cops, and decided to call her to the high court on the pretext of retracting the FIR," he said. During the court lunch break, when she stepped out to have tea at Dolly Ki Tapri in Civil Lines, she was nabbed by a police team at around 2pm.
Senior inspector Kailash Deshmane of Gittikhadan police station said she had been granted three-day police custody remand. He stated that all eight husbands submitted affidavits detailing their ordeal. Investigations are ongoing to ascertain the total amount she extorted. Interestingly, she remains legally married to all eight men, with no divorce proceedings initiated.
Fatima, a government school teacher, already had a 12-year-old child, and has recently delivered another baby, whose paternity remains unclear. She is currently in custody, and her infant child remains with her for now.
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