Alert jewellery store owner recognises woman from photo shared on WA group when she visits his shop, contacts jeweller she had cheated, who calls the police
Sonam Devi Gupta, the accused, is a Taloja local
Thanks to a picture circulated on a WhatsApp group, a Navi Mumbai jewellery store owner was able to get a woman who cheated him arrested. CBD Belapur police arrested the 24-year-old woman after an alert Taloja-based jeweller recognised her from a picture on a WhatsApp group of his fraternity. Arrested on February 6, the woman was released on bail on Wednesday.
On the evening of January 9, the woman with a toddler went to Anmol Jewellers in CBD Belapur. The police said she told owner Madanlal Mehta, that she had a gold pendant which she wanted to exchange for a gold ring. Mehta asked his employees to check the purity of the gold in the pendant. The employee checked it and said it was gold. Mehta gave the woman a 2.620 gm gold ring worth Rs 15,000.
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Jamnalal Gurjar recognised Gupta immediately from the picture he had received on WhatsApp
But after she left, Mehta grew suspicious and asked his employee to take the pendant to their workshop to further check it. Mehta was shocked to know that it was not gold and his employee had been cheated. The next day, he took grabs from CCTV footage of the woman in his shop and circulated them in a WhatsApp group of Navi Mumbai jewellers. But when there was no response from anyone for days, Mehta thought he lost the money.
The phone call
But on February 6, he received a call from the owner of Mayura Jewellers, Jamnalal James Gurjar. Gurjar told him the woman in the picture he had posted a month ago, was sitting in his shop. An excited Mehta immediately informed the Taloja police under whose jurisdiction Gurjar's shop is located.
"We sent a team with women constables and nabbed the woman. But as the offence had occurred in the jurisdiction of CBD police, we handed the accused to them," said an officer from Taloja police station. CBD police arrested the woman under IPC section 420 (cheating).
Cheated complainant's brother too
"During the interrogation of the woman it was revealed that she had also duped another jeweller in Kharghar, whose owner happened to be Mehta's brother. We urge other jewellers to come forward and lodge complaints if she has cheated them," said Sub-Inspector Ajit Kamble of CBD Belapur police station. The woman was identified as Sonam Devi Gupta. She is a Taloja local.
"When the woman walked into my shop, it struck me that I had seen her somewhere. I remembered that I had seen her in a WhatsApp message in our jewellers' group. I immediately called Mehta and kept her busy for an hour till the police arrived," said Gurjar.
Rs 15k
Value of gold the jeweller had been duped of
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