Appear before police: Telangana HC tells shaadi.com employees in matrimonial cheating case involving fake profile

Telangana HC directs Shaadi.com director and employees to cooperate in investigation of ₹10 lakh fraud case.

Telangana High Court on Thursday (April 24, 2025) directed shaadi.com, an online matchmaking service provider, director Anupam Mittal and two of its employees to appear before Jubilee Hills police and co-operate with the ongoing investigation into a criminal case of a woman getting duped of ₹10 lakh by a person posting a fake profile on the website.

Justice N. Tukaramji of the HC, disposing of the two criminal petitions filed by Mr. Mittal and two others, instructed the police to issue notices to the three of them who had been arrayed as accused in the case under section 35 (3) of BNSS. The three accused, Anupam Mittal, Vignesh and Satish Nanaiah, (who filed pleas seeking a direction to quash the FIR) should appear before the Jubilee Hills police and co-operate with the investigation.

Once the investigation was completed, they could challenge the contentions of the police and seek relief, the judge said. Two months ago, a doctor approached the police alleging that she had been tricked into parting with ₹10.94 lakh by a person named ‘Harsha Cherukuri’ through the shaadi.com online platform through their Select Service package.

Police found that Harsha Cherukuri was a fictitious name of Jogada Vamshi Krishna, who posted fake profiles on shaadi.com to lure women. According to police, he earlier cheated some women in the same fashion in Bengaluru using matrimonial platforms. He was accused of duping nearly 20 women with this modus operandi. In one of the cases, he was even convicted.

He was arrested and remanded in judicial custody. Eventually, Shaadi.com relationship manager Kamatam Pavan was also arrested. Based on his confession, Anupam Mittal, Vignesh and Nanaiah were made accused in the case. They moved the HC, claiming that there was no statutory mandate requiring shaadi.com to verify profiles posted by users. The website, being an intermediary service provider, cannot be held liable for third-party communication or information made available on the platform.

Additional Public Prosecutor Jitender Rao Veeramallu contended that not verifying the details of the customers posting profiles on the website would amount to aiding and abetting persons providing fictitious details. The doctor came into contact with the prime accused through the profile posted on shaadi.com, and the latter cannot shirk responsibility of verifying genuineness of the details.

“Moreover, the accused in this case posted the photo of Yanam MLA as his own, and the matrimonial website did not take adequate precautions to verify if it was genuine or not. All this required further investigation, and at this stage, the FIR cannot be quashed against them,” he said.