JAIPUR/ALWAR: The Dholpur police have busted a gang of conmen allegedly involved in defrauding families on the pretext of marrying their sons. The accused included a 29-year-old 'runaway bride' who married six men and ran away each time along with the cash and jewellery given by her in-laws post marriage. But, her seventh attempt was foiled by anti-human trafficking unit of the police late on Tuesday night.

The gang included a woman and her two accomplices who used to pose as her father and brother to fix her marriage.

When asked about their modus operandi, police said, "The accused Sangeeta alias Rachna alias Sapna alias Pooja along with her partners-in-crime Parmesh Mishra (45) and Krishna Sharma (30), who hail from Kanpur, used to identify those Brahmin families where a man wasn't able to find a suitable bride for being either overaged or physically disabled. Then they would ask the families Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh to marry their sons to Sangeeta," Rahul Prakash, superintendent of police, Dholpur, said on Wednesday.

"Gang members Sangeeta and Parmesh are quite like the real life Bunty and Babli as both have been in a relationship for a long time," the SP said.

After they were paid the money, Parmesh, posing as the girl's father, used to agree to the marriage. "A few days after the marriage, the girl, once she got the jewellery from her in-laws, either fled from the house or Parmesh came and took her away citing some family member's illness as the reason," he added.

When asked how the police managed to foil the seventh attempt of the gang, "We got information the gang had fixed Sangeeta's marriage with a Brahmin boy of Kolari village in the district. Later, plainclothes police were deployed around the marriage venue as baraatis. We caught them red-handed accepting Rs 1,60,000," he said.

According to police, the gang has defrauded four families in Dholpur and two other such cases had been reported in Uttar Pradesh. Police believes that there could be more cases of cheating against the gang.

"We are in touch with the police in Ahmedabad and Bihar where such gangs were busted recently. It appears that the gang is allegedly involved in more such cases," an officer said.