IDBI manager alleges fiancé cheated her out of over ₹8 lakh through marriage ruse

A 35-year-old bank manager has accused a man she met on a matrimonial mobile application of defrauding her of more than ₹8 lakh after promising marriage and persuading her to part with cash and family gold to help him “buy a house”.

According to the FIR filed on September 11, Mamta Vaher, an assistant manager with IDBI Bank, first came in contact with Aarav Harshadbhai Patel about 18 months ago through the Jeevansathi app while she was staying with her aunt in Kalupur, Ahmedabad. Patel introduced himself as the son of a police officer from Rajkot and said he worked with a private bank.

Vaher told police that Patel soon proposed marriage and convinced her that they should start saving jointly for a house. He asked her to transfer money into the account of his sister, Shantuben Khachar, claiming this would be used for the purchase of the house.

Between May 2024 and July 2025, Vaher allegedly moved about ₹8.4 lakh from her IDBI and Bank of Baroda accounts into Khachar’s State Bank of India account. To raise the money, she said she sold several items of family jewellery, including a gold mangalsutra and necklaces borrowed from relatives, to jewellers in Ahmedabad’s C G Road area, using the proceeds for the transfers.

Vaher further alleged that Patel encouraged her to borrow from friends and even take small personal loans from banks, including Axis Bank, IDBI and ICICI, assuring her that they were building a shared future. But after receiving the funds, he allegedly stopped taking her calls and disconnected his phone.

She trusted him completely because they were planning a life together, but he betrayed that trust and disappeared. 

Kalupur police have booked Patel for cheating and criminal breach of trust under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and are tracing the bank account transactions linked to the alleged fraud.

Investigators said statements from jewellers who purchased the gold and from relatives who lent jewellery will be recorded. Patel is absconding now .