In a significant breakthrough, the Khargone police have successfully apprehended two members of an interstate gang involved in a sophisticated fraud case, where they cheated a local jeweller of cash and ornaments worth nearly Rs 20 lakh by using counterfeit gold pellets.
The Elaborate Scheme Unfolds
The incident came to light on November 28, when Deepak Muchhal, the proprietor of Saumya Jewellers in Bediya, filed a formal complaint at the Bediya police station. According to the complaint, the two accused had meticulously built a rapport with the jeweller by visiting his shop three to four times earlier and engaging in regular, seemingly genuine transactions to win his trust.
Posing as residents of Haryana, the duo later approached Muchhal with a story about an impending wedding in their family. They claimed they needed gold and silver jewellery, along with cash, for the marriage of one of their daughters. They proposed a deal: in exchange for Rs 10 lakh in cash and additional gold and silver ornaments, they would give the jeweller 23 gold pellets, weighing approximately 230 grams, as collateral.
The Deception and Investigation
The accused promised to return within ten days to settle the payment and reclaim their pellets. Trusting them due to their prior interactions, the jeweller agreed. He handed over ornaments and cash totalling nearly Rs 20 lakh and received the pellets. However, after the men left, Muchhal discovered the gold pellets were completely fake. The accused had vanished, and all contact was lost.
Taking swift action, Khargone SP Ravindra Verma formed a special team to crack the case. The investigation leveraged cyber cell expertise and involved the meticulous scanning of footage from more than 100 CCTV cameras across different locations. This painstaking effort led to the identification of the fraudsters.
Arrests and Recovery
The accused were identified as Dharmendra, a resident of Jaunai police station area in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, and Bijendra, from the Sohana police station area in Gurugram, Haryana. The police learned that the duo had been living in a rented house in Pithampur but fled immediately after executing the fraud.
Following the leads, police teams tracked and arrested the accused from Haryana and Rajasthan. In a major success for the investigation, the police managed to recover the entire stolen property. This included cash worth Rs 17 lakh and gold and silver ornaments valued at Rs 3 lakh.
During interrogation, the arrested individuals revealed their modus operandi. They would live in different locations using fake identities, befriend jewellers through repeated small dealings to build confidence, and then exploit that trust to carry out their well-planned frauds.
