The Tuk-Tuk gang, it seems, has struck again, this time in Kalyan.
A 35-year-old woman was recently robbed of Rs1.5 lakh by conmen using the modus operandi wherein the victim is distracted by telling him/her that s/he dropped a Rs10/Rs100 note, and as the victim gets busy in retrieving that, his/her bag carrying lakhs is flicked, all in a matter of seconds.
The latest victim, Anuja Deshmukh, who works as an agent for the postal department in Kalyan, was robbed on Saturday in broad daylight at 12.30pm. The incident happened on the service road near Shamrao Vitthal Bank.
The victim and her husband Anand, 39, were on their way to buy gold. Anand parked the car near the bank, and before going inside to update his pass book, asked Anuja to wait in the vehicle so that it wouldn't get towed away.
After Anand left, said Anuja, an unknown man aged between 25 and 30 rapped on the window of their car and told her that she had dropped a Rs10 note.
Anand said, "I returned within minutes and asked my wife where she had kept the bag with cash. We both searched for it and, when we couldn't find it, she told me what had happened just minutes earlier."
"She said she got out of the vehicle to check if currency notes had indeed fallen down, thinking that perhaps our four-year-old daughter had dropped them accidentally. She did find Rs10 notes and asked a couple of passers-by if they were theirs. When they denied, she returned to the car. The robbers must have taken our cash bag in that time," he added.
A case has been registered with the Mahatma Phule police station under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 379 (punishment for theft) of the Indian Penal Code.
An officer said, "We have filed a complaint, but the victim is not able to recollect the face of the man who had approached her. Nonetheless, we will get a sketch made and also show her photos of history-sheeters, in case she recognises anyone of them. Further investigation is on."
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