According to Khar Police, the incident occurred on May 9, between 11.30 am and 1 pm, when the complainant was alone in her third-floor flat in the Gangadham building in Khar Danda. During that time, Shinde, dressed in a white dhoti and shirt, arrived at her door pretending to be a sadhu
The accused baba in custody of the Khar police
A man posing as a sadhu (holy man) was arrested by Khar Police for cheating a woman in Khar out of gold jewellery worth '2.7 lakh. The accused, identified as Tanaji Rajaram Shinde, 34, was arrested from his residence in Akola on July 14, with the assistance of Borgaon Police. On May 20, mid-day reported how the accused was absconding after stealing a gold chain, in its report, ‘Fake baba cons Khar woman, flees with 17.5 grams of gold chain in the name of ‘ritual’.
According to Khar Police, the incident occurred on May 9, between 11.30 am and 1 pm, when the complainant was alone in her third-floor flat in the Gangadham building in Khar Danda. During that time, Shinde, dressed in a white dhoti and shirt, arrived at her door pretending to be a sadhu. He claimed to be from Akkalkot and a devotee of Swami Samarth and engaged her in a lengthy conversation.
A police officer said, “He asked what offering (dakshina) she would like to give. When she offered money, he declined and instead requested gold, saying he needed it for a ritual at the Shankar temple and would return it later. Believing him, the woman handed over her mother’s gold mangalsutra, weighing 6.5 tolas and valued at '2.7 lakh.”
“The man left, saying he was heading to the temple, but never came back. Realising she had been deceived, the woman approached the Khar Police and lodged an FIR for cheating,” the officer added. Acting under the guidance of Senior Inspector Sanjeev Dhumal and Inspector Vaibhav Katkar, a team including API Datta Kokane, PSI Prakash Shirsath, and Constables Manoj Vaidya, Anand, Sanjay Sanap, Ajit Jadhav, Santosh Kamble, and Abhijeet Kadam began investigating the case.
The team reviewed footage from nearly 250 CCTV cameras. They found that the accused switched four to five auto-rickshaws as he travelled through Khar, Santacruz, Andheri, and Jogeshwari. From Jogeshwari, he made his way to the Jivdani Devi area near Katkaripada in Virar via Borivali.
By examining CCTV footage before and after the incident, police successfully identified the suspect. “We discovered that the accused is a resident of Akola and had duped several people in Mumbai. Our team tracked him down and arrested him in Akola under Section 318(4) of the BNS Act. We also recovered 100 per cent of the stolen gold,” the officer said.
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