The Colaba police have arrested a 55-year-old man and two sisters for allegedly duping a popular shop at Colaba of jewellery worth Rs7 lakh. The company has four outlets in two 5-star hotels at Colaba and Nariman Point.
According to the police, complainant in the case is a sales executive in the shop. The shop had laid out expensive jewelleries and wrist watches of three branded companies for sale.
On June 11, a 55-year-old man and two women had entered the shop and they were shown jewellery and watches by the manager. The man had claimed that he wanted to buy jewellery for his daughter's first marriage anniversary. The trio liked one necklace and said they would purchase it on June 15, police said.
The man told the manager that they would make payment through a demand draft (DD). The manager then provided them the name on which the DD should be made and asked them to collect the necklace from the staff on June 15. The man gave his visiting card, mobile number and residential address of Boisar to the manager and the trio left.
On June 15, the man visited the shop again, but alone. He asked for the necklace that he had selected and handed over the DD of Rs7 lakh. The DD was of a Boisar-based nationalised bank issued on June 14. The complainant accepted the DD and gave the necklace and the invoice to the man. The complainant asked for a PAN card copy from the man, but the latter said that he was not having it with him and promised to fax the copy within two days and left.
"On June 16, when the staff went to realise the said DD in the bank they were told that it was a fake. The complainant also learnt that the address provided by the man who purchased the necklace was bogus. After realising that they have been duped, a police complaint was lodged," said an officer from Colaba police station.
On receipt of specific information the police on Saturday arrested the mastermind of the fraud, Surender Punjabi and his accomplices Mini Pandey, 21 and Tina Pandey, 20, both residents of Pragati Nagar in Nalasopara (E). "the Pandey sisters told the police that they had agreed to join Punjabi in the fraud as they were in need of money. We are investigating whether they were involved in similar cases in the past," said the officer.
Those arrested have been booked on charges of forgery and cheating. The police have also recovered the jewellery.
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