2 booked for stealing elderly woman’s jewellery worth ₹5L on pretext of giving donations

“The man told her to come with him to the building where the employee stays. A few minutes later, he told her that she might not get much donation if the employer sees her wearing gold bangles and chain and suggested she hand it to him for safekeeping,” said an official from Vakola police

MUMBAI: Two unknown persons were booked on Thursday for duping an elderly woman under the pretext of giving generous donations to senior citizens and stealing gold jewellery worth ₹5 lakh.

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The incident occurred on Thursday around 1pm, when the complainant, Vijaya Chari, 82, had gotten off a bus at the Vakola bridge and was walking towards her home. While walking on the footpath near Ashok Nagar, a man stopped her to say that his employer was giving generous donations to elderly people due to a son being born in the family.

“The man told her to come with him to the building where the employee stays. A few minutes later, he told her that she might not get much donation if the employer sees her wearing gold bangles and chain and suggested she hand it to him for safekeeping,” said an official from Vakola police.

Initially, she hesitated to take the jewellery off, but he gave her a purse and asked her to keep the jewellery in it.

“There was some confusion between the first man and me about the polythene and its contents afterwards. When I reached home and looked inside the bag, my jewellery was not there,” Chari told the police.

The two unknown accused have been booked under section 170 (impersonating a public servant) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.