JAIPUR: A 26-year-old woman, who used her looks on social networking site Facebook to entice her victims before allegedly conning them, was arrested by the Jaipur police after a gruelling hunt on Wednesday.

The story of Khushbu Sharma is nothing less than a Bollywood potboiler of a woman who charmed her way into the world of crime. Khushbu Sharma alias Smriti Sharma alias Lady Cocoa was arrested after a search of almost one-and-a-half months by a Sodala police team who chased her for 5 km while she was trying to flee in a stolen car on Ajmer Road.

Though she revealed her name as Khushbu, police are trying to verify her real name. A team of Jaipur police has also rushed to Delhi to verify if she is a resident of Karol Bagh as claimed by her. With different addresses and under different names, she posed as an IAS officer. Unaware, many people, including many socialites, who had befriended her on the social networking sites started blocking her on Thursday. A day after she was arrested at the Sodala police station, a team from Aadarsh Nagar police station again arrested her for allegedly decamping with a car from the possession of a man. Senior policemen investigating the case confirmed that the woman has allegedly conned at least 100 people in the city. However, people fearing social defamation, had not registered FIR against her.

On Thursday, fresh cases of conning were lodged against her at Amber and Malviya Nagar police stations.

“Since she kept different identities, it was difficult to locate her. However, after taking the details of her mobile locations, we found that her last call during night was always made from Khirni Phatak area in Jhotwara. We also had information that she had a Maruti Star car. On Wednesday, when we saw a woman getting into that car and leaving, we chased her and nabbed her,” said a senior police officer. After Sodala police produced her in a court, the Aadarsh Nagar police came and asked for her custody in the stolen car case. On her modus operandi, a senior police officer said, “She used to pose as an IAS officer and to make it look genuine, she had made a Facebook ID describing her to be an officer. She would then call her FB friends over for tea or coffee. Later, she would ask them to hand over whatever money or valuables they have else threatening them to implicate in rape cases. Not only that, she used to get fuel refill at petrol pumps and did not pay them while throwing her weight around as an IAS officer.”

Elaborating more on her style of functioning, a senior officer said, “In the Aadarsh Nagar car theft case that took place three months ago, she took a lift from a man from DCM near Ajmer Road. Later, she asked the man to take her to Raja Park. It was evening and after reaching Raja Park, she asked him to bring some contraceptive from a shop if he is interested in sex. While the man got out of the vehicle, she drove away with the car.”

As her arrest came to light, several people visited Sodala police station. “The problem in this case is that there are many victims still under fear of social defamation. They are yet to lodge any case,” said an officer.

