Real-life ‘Dolly Ki Doli’? How cops caught ‘looteri bride’ who cheated 25 men in 7 months

She tricked 25 men into marrying her and escaped each time with jewellery and cash worth several lakhs.

It looks like the plot of the 2015 Bollywood film ‘Dolly Ki Doli’ has come true.

Anuradha Paswan, a 23-year-old known as the ‘looteri dulhan’, has been arrested by Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur police. She was caught in Bhopal.

ALSO READ | The horrific case of a French chef who killed a man and then cooked him

According to the police, she had recently taken Rs 2 lakh from another man and was planning her next “wedding.”

In this report, we look at how Anuradha ran her matchmaking scam, how she was caught, and what the police said about the fake marriage racket.

Here’s a look:

How Anuradha married 25 men, ran away with gold and cash

Police say Anuradha Paswan was part of a well-planned marriage scam that targeted unmarried men in small towns.

She would pretend to be poor and eager to marry. Acting like the perfect bride and daughter-in-law, she would win the trust of the groom’s family before disappearing with their valuables.

Her method, as reported by The Times of India, was simple but clever: present herself as an ideal match, provide legal documents, gain the family’s confidence, marry the man, and then flee within a few days with cash, gold, and electronic items.

Members of her gang would show her photos and details to potential grooms, calling her the “perfect match.” The person arranging the marriage, actually part of the gang, would charge Rs 2 lakh as a matchmaking fee, NDTV reported.

After the match was confirmed, a consent letter would be signed, and the wedding would take place - either at home or in a temple, following traditional rituals. Then the plan would move to its final stage.

Within days, she would intoxicate the food and escape with jewellery, cash, and anything valuable, the report said.

Her story closely mirrors the plot of the 2015 Bollywood film ‘Dolly Ki Doli’, where Sonam Kapoor’s character marries several men only to leave with their money on the wedding night.

When a groom had to take loan for marriage

On April 20, Vishnu Sharma from Sawai Madhopur married Anuradha in front of friends and family.

The wedding had been arranged through a broker, Pappu Meena, who took Rs 2 lakh from Sharma.

On May 2, Sharma returned home to find his bride missing. With her had gone his gold, cash, and electronic items.

Sharma told NDTV, “I run a handcart and got married by taking a loan. I had also borrowed a mobile, she took that too. I never sensed that she would cheat me.”

He later filed a complaint at the Sawai Madhopur police station.

ALSO READ | The shocking case of a German doctor who had a ’lust for killing’ and murdered his 15 patients

How ‘looteri Dulhan’ was caught

Anuradha Paswan, originally from Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh, once worked at a hospital. She reportedly left her husband after a family dispute.

She later shifted to Bhopal, where she is believed to have joined a gang involved in a matchmaking scam run through WhatsApp, according to The Times of India.

After Vishnu Sharma’s complaint, the Sawai Madhopur police launched a plan to catch her in action.

They sent an undercover constable, posing as a groom. When an agent shared Anuradha’s photo, the police moved in.

She was tracked and arrested in Bhopal before she could con another man.

“Upon investigation, all documents and marriage agreements were found to be fake. From our team, we prepared a constable as a groom and tricked the woman into marriage,” a police officer told NDTV.

The police said she had recently cheated another man of Rs 2 lakh and was planning her next “wedding.”

Several others linked to the racket have also been identified. Rajasthan Police are now working with other states to uncover the full network.

Not the first time

This is not the first time such a scam has come to light.

A similar case surfaced last year involving a woman who married multiple men and collected around Rs 1.25 crore from them in the name of settlement.

Seema, who lived in Uttarakhand, first married a businessman in Agra in 2013. Later, she filed a case against his family and received Rs 75 lakh as part of a settlement, NDTV reported.

She then married another man and reached another settlement. In 2023, she married a businessman from Jaipur and ran away with cash and jewellery worth Rs 36 lakh.

After his family filed a police complaint, she was arrested by the Jaipur Police.

Investigations revealed that Seema used matrimonial websites to find her targets, mostly men who were divorced or had lost their wives, the report said.