Mumbai: Two Fraudsters posing as doctors arrested for duping over 20 jewellers

Mumbai: In a fraud case reported in the city, two fraudsters posing as doctors have been arrested by the Mumbai police for allegedly duping an owner of a gold jewellery shop of Rs 2 lakh on the pretext of purchasing gold ornaments.  

The accused were taken into custody after the shop owner lodged a complaint against the fraudsters revealing their scam. According to the police, the duo pretended to be doctors and targeted shops adjacent to or opposite hospitals.

While investigating the case, the police found that the duo cheated around 20 jewellers across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Gujarat. However, this time their act was caught after the police identified them on the CCTV footage of the hospital. 

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The accused has been identified as a 26-year-old man from Karjat and a 43-year-old from Nalasopara. 

The incident took place on May 7 (Sunday) when a woman who was the accomplice of the accused called Chetan Rajkumar Jain, the owner of Ram Jewellers in Bhayandar East. She claimed to be the wife of a doctor who was working at the hospital near the shop. She said she wanted to buy two gold bangles weighing around four tolas. 

However, she had ₹4 lakh in ₹2,000 denomination and she wanted change for ₹2 lakh in ₹500 currency notes. She asked Jain if he could send his employees to the hospital to take measurements of her hands. Following this, the owner agreed and sent his employee to the hospital with cash and a design catalogue.

Vijay Pawar, senior police inspector, Navghar police station, informed HT, “As soon as Jain’s employee reached the stairs of the hospital, a man intercepted him saying that he was sent by the doctor’s wife to receive him. The man took the bag containing cash from the jeweller’s employee and told him to go upstairs to take the measurement while he counted the cash on the machine. When Jain’s employee went to the first floor and enquired about the doctor’s cabin, he was informed that no such doctor worked in the hospital. The employee then ran down to look for the man whom he had given the cash to, however, the fraud had fled from the spot."

Feeling anxious and afraid, the employees reported the incident to Jain, who approached the police and the matter came to light. 

After the police reached the spot, they immediately checked the CCTV footage and found the fraudster leaving the hospital with the bag. As a result, the police circulated the footage of them among their informers. 

Soon after getting inputs about their location, the police reached the spot and arrested them on Wednesday and later tracked down their accomplice. While the police were interrogating the duo, they confessed that they have cheated several jewellers in Bhandup, Thane, Vapi and other places. "Their modus operandi was to locate a jewellery store near a hospital and then get the phone numbers from the signboard of the shop and the doctor’s name from the list of doctors on the display board of the hospital and make the calls,” Pawar said.

The cash was recovered by the police at his residence and was later handed over to the owner of the shop.

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