Members of Jharkhand Eye Bank Trust at an eye donation awareness camp. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Aug. 31: Police today sent a woman to Birsa Munda Central Jail for cheating 16 women off several thousands of rupees.

Shama Parveen (35) had collected more than Rs 40,000 from 16 women of Nazir Ali lane promising them government assistance of Rs 50,000 under a mock welfare scheme.

An FIR was lodged in this regard at the Lower Bazaar police station on August 20.

Officer in-charge of Lower Bazaar police station Randhir Kumar Singh said that Parveen had collected money in the name of bribing officials of rural development department.

“Praveen told the women that she would be paying Rs 5,000 as bribe to rural development department officials and then collected Rs 2,500 from each of the 16 women. This was the first installment of the bribe,” Singh said.

The police official said that Praveen’s act amounted to cheating as there was no such government scheme to provide cash to poor women.

“Parveen took advantage of the ignorance of women who were in need of government help for starting their own business,” he said.

Parveen is the resident of Hindpiri and claims to have been associated with a non-government organisation, Singh said.

“However, she could not name the NGO with which she is associated,” he said.

Singh said that the women who were cheated belonged to the minority community.

The arrest of Parveen has once again exposed the vulnerability of women belonging to the weaker sections. It has also made it clear that residents of the city need awareness on the functioning of NGOs.

Earlier, two such cases had come to the notice of police in Argora. In one case the cheat claimed to be associated with an educational institution.

He promised the residents of his colony to provide computer training and collected a nominal fee from them. After collecting money in lakhs he suddenly vanished away.

Another case in which a woman promised to help the residents of Argora and provide sewing machines, computers, and fax machines in order to make them self-employed, was exposed a few months ago.

The woman presented herself as a NGO employee and won the confidence of the residents before decamping with all their money.

“People have so much faith in NGOs that they are ready to believe in even the most unrealistic stories told about them by the frauds,” rued Singh.