Crime Branch officials have arrested three persons, including a woman, from Mumbai for duping city jewellers and fleeing with 7.5 kg of gold worth Rs 5 crore.
A cheating case was registered in June, and the accused were arrested on Saturday after the Jaipur police shared photographs and information about the trio with the city police.
The police refused to reveal the identities of the accused, as they feel it will hamper investigations. Officers from the Crime Branch will now head to Ahmedabad to recover the gold that was sold by the accused to various jewellers.
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In June, the accused are alleged to have called various jewellers to a row house in the city to purchase gold bars from them. They fled with the booty on the pretext of checking the purity of the bullion.u00a0
Around 15 days ago, a case of cheating transpired in Jaipur where the gang conned a jeweller’s son under the guise of buying gold ingots from him. The Jaipur police got hold of photographs of the accused and, according to sources, this information was shared with the city police a week ago.
Police Inspector Sunil Pawar from Crime Branch Unit III who arrested the accused, said, “We can not reveal the names now, and details will be shared only after the recovery of the gold. On Saturday we arrested three people in Mumbai. During questioning, they stated they sold the gold in various states. The stolen booty is worth Rs 4 to 5 crore, and we have formed teams to recover the gold.”
Five months ago, one of the accused, posing as Viren Shah (32), started a bogus company named Future Vision Investment, which was portrayed as a firm dealing in buying and selling of jewellery. The police said Shah also bought gold without receipts.
On June 5, he called a few jewellers — Abhijit Bafna of Bafna jewellers, Chinchwad; Murali Narayanan of Gudwin Jewellers, Pimpri; Rohit Thakkar of Bundgarden; and one person named Mehta — to a row house.
The jewellers showed the gold bars to Shah, and he went upstairs to check the purity. In Shah’s absence, his companion stepped out of the bungalow under the ruse of checking if the van bringing the cash had arrived. As both Shah and his companion did not return, the jewellers went upstairs and found Shah missing. They realised they had been duped and lodged a case at the Sangavi police station.u00a0
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