Fraudsters dupe Mumbai man of Rs 25 lakh with counterfeit jewellery; 5 held

Mumbai, Dec 14 (PTI) A gang of fraudsters has allegedly cheated a Mumbai-based man of Rs 25 lakh by falsely claiming to have found gold ornaments during excavation and then selling counterfeit jewellery to him, police said on Sunday.

The police have arrested five of the gang members, all hailing from Jalore district in Rajasthan, they said.

The victim, Dinesh Mehta (51), resident of Mumbai's Malad area, in his police complaint said that one of the accused, Babulal Bhalaram Waghela, had befriended him by conversing in the Rajasthani language.

The accused then claimed he had found gold ornaments weighing about 900 gm during excavation behind a temple in Nashik, a Malad police official said.

Waghela asked the victim to either help him sell the ornaments or buy them himself. The accused showed some ornaments to the victim and gave him some 'gold' beads as a sample.

The beads appeared to be made of gold, following which the victim purchased the ornaments from the accused after allegedly paying Rs 25 lakh in cash, the official said.

However, when he took the ornaments to a jeweller for testing, they were found to be fake, the police said.

The victim then approached the police with a complaint.

During the probe, the police examined the footage of more than 100 CCTVs before nabbing five persons from Gujarat and Virar in Maharashtra's Palghar district in connection with the case, the official said.

The accused have been identified as Babulal Bhalaram Waghela (55), Kokubai Babulal Waghela (50), Mangalaram Manaram Waghari (34), Kesaram Bhagataram Waghari and Bhavarlal Babulal Waghari, he said.

The police recovered Rs 15.45 lakh in cash from the residence of Babulal Waghela's residence, who is a habitual offender and has multiple cases registered against him, the official said.

Search was on for one more accused in the case, he added. PTI ZA GK