Some Tamil television channels estimated that Shahanaz had married more than 100 men, but initial inquiries by police indicates that she could have cheated 12 to 15 men during last 10 years by marrying and ditching them later.

Shahanaz had started her journey of marriages from Pathanamthitta in Kerala, where she was married to one Sidique, more than 11 years ago.

The woman, who has a child aged around 10, was asked to leave the family leaving the child behind after she divorced because of her illicit relationship with other men. Her parents were working in the Gulf.

Her next husband was one Shanawaz from Kayamkumalm in Kerala. In 2005, she left Shanawaz and married a physically-handicapped man named Biju in Thrissur, Kerala. She deserted him also and vanished with Rs 1.1 lakh in cash and 13 sovereigns of gold.

Shahanaz then went on to marry another man whom she later left taking whatever valuables she could.

She then came to Chennai and started working at a margin-free shop in Veppery in March 2006. Here she came in contact with Prasanna, Chandra Babu and Saravanan, all of whom she married later.

However, before she tied the knot with these three, she married one Rajesh who was a collection agent in a bank and then left him to marry an assistant film director.

The reception of her wedding with the assistant director and the reception at a hotel in Vadapalani was attended by a few film stars.

The two had then left for Tiruchy, where she took all the gold ornaments and pledged it at a local pawnbroker and vanished only to surface again in Chennai.

On reaching Chennai, she had been luring almost all men known to her one by one with the aim of emptying their pockets.

She married Manikandan, who she met at a car service shop last year and left him to wed Chandra Babu.

Later she married Suresh, Saravanan and Prasnna, a football player.

Shahanaz always maintained that she preferred to stay in a hostel so that she can prepare for civil service examinations, though she had actually not even completed Plus 2.

Some men were even paying her hostel fee and other expenses while she had found her new prey and extracted money from them also.

She occasionally shifted hotels so that hostel inmates and warden do not question her about ever changing husbands.

Once she married two different men in Basin Bridge in a short span of time. One of her mothers-in-law saw her with another woman, who claimed that Shahanaz was her daughter-in-law.

The lady was shocked to see her because she was under impression that Shahanaz was in a hostel preparing for the civil service examinations.

As Shahanaz dodged questions, the case reached the Pulianthope all women police station. She was allowed to go with one of her husbands who had a picture of their wedding.

‘My son was lured by Shahanaz’

One mother-in-law of 33-year-old Shahanaz, the woman who was on marriage spree, has recounted to Deccan Chronicle how her son was lured, married and ditched.

“We were against the marriage because she belonged to another religion. However, my son insisted on marrying her saying that he was in deeply in love with her.

Shahanaz had told him that she would commit suicide because her uncle was making arrangement to marry her off to somebody else,” said one of the mothers-in-law of Shahanaz.

The lady who stays in in Mugalivakkam said her son had met the woman at a car service centre where he was working.

“She had come enquiring about somebody else and they exchanged mobile numbers. He fell in love with her. We told him that she looked older than him and that she was from another religion, but he insisted on marrying her. One day in April 2011, he brought her home,” she recalled.

“We decided to honour his decision and conducted a marriage ceremony at a temple and hosted a reception. She kept saying she was an orphan and that there was nobody from her family to attend the marriage,” said the woman.

“She interacted with us respectfully but we in the family were not happy with the way she was treating my son. She kept watching TV and helped me occasionally in cooking. However, she and my son seemed to be quarreling always,” said the woman.

Shahanaz then told the family that she wanted to stay in a hostel where she can prepare for civil service examination and left the house.

On Thursday, Prasanna, one of her husbands, said that he received a threatening call from Shahanaz for lodging a complaint with the police.