Man poses as seer, cheats elderly woman of gold jewellery in Delhi's Pitampura; arrested

New Delhi, Mar 6 (PTI) A man allegedly posed as a seer and duped a 65-year-old woman of her gold ornaments on the pretext of resolving her problems, an official said on Friday.

The accused, Mithun, has been arrested and one gold ornament belonging to the victim has been recovered from him, police said.

According to police, the incident took place on March 3 when the complainant Raj Rani (65) was returning to her residence in Pitampura after finishing household work at a nearby house.

When she reached near the Tata Power NDPL office in Pitampura around 11.30 am, an unknown man approached her and introduced himself as a seer, claiming he could resolve her problems.

"Soon after, another man joined them and pretended to seek the saint's help for his own issues, apparently to gain the confidence of the elderly woman," the officer said.

The accused then asked them to walk 151 steps with him, assuring that their problems would be solved through a ritual. The trio eventually reached under a foot overbridge, opposite a police booth. There, the 'seer' allegedly asked the complainant to hand over her gold locket and ear studs to the other person as part of the ritual.

"Deceived by their claims, the woman handed over the ornaments to them, after which the two men fled from the spot," the officer said.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered and a team analysed CCTV footage from the area, police said.

During the investigation, police managed to identify and apprehend Mithun, who was later found to be involved in similar crimes earlier, and had been previously arrested in Uttar Pradesh, the officer said, adding that one gold locket taken from the complainant was recovered from his possession.

During interrogation, Mithun disclosed that he, along with his associate, had targeted the elderly woman and staged a seer act to deceive her into handing over her ornaments, police said.

Efforts are underway to recover the remaining jewellery and arrest the co-accused, they added. PTI BM BM ARB ARB