Man arrested for duping people using fake antique gold necklace

A man from Thane has been arrested for cheating people, including jewellers, by selling them a fake antique golden necklace that he claimed to have found. The accused used a modus operandi of hiding genuine gold pieces in his mouth and handing over a fake piece for verification. The police have also identified a female accomplice.

MUMBAI: A man from Thane was arrested for allegedly cheating several people, including jewellers from the city, on the pretext of selling them an antique golden necklace that he claimed to have found while digging an ancient site in Pune district.

Man arrested for duping people using fake antique gold necklace

According to the police, the accused, Ramesh Solanki, 57, a resident of Lokmanya Nagar, Thane, used to show the jewellers a small piece of genuine gold, claiming it to be a part of the antique necklace, and after finalising the money, he sends them a fake one.

The complainant, Mohammad Naushad Ahmed, 30, is a tailor who resides in Khadak locality in Dongri. On September 19, Solanki approached Ahmed at his tailoring shop and befriended him. He told him that he wanted to sell an antique golden necklace, which he found while digging at an ancient site in Pune.

“He broke two small pieces from the necklace in front of Ahmed and asked him to get it checked by a jeweller. When Ahmed got it checked by a local jeweller, he found it to be genuine gold,” said senior police inspector Rajan Rane of Dongri police station.

After Ahmed ascertained that the pieces were pure gold, the two fixed the price of the necklace ₹9 lakh. Accordingly, he paid ₹6 lakh to Solanki, who then handed him the necklace. Under the arrangement, the balance amount of ₹3 lakh was to be paid next month, the officer added.

However, when Ahmed took the necklace to his jeweller, he was told that the necklace was fake and wasn’t made of gold he then realised that he had been cheated and approached the police.

Rane said Solanki used a novel modus operandi. “He hides two genuine gold pieces in his mouth and hands over the piece to his victims for verification after pretending to break it from the larger antique piece.”

A case was registered under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

After the case was registered, a team headed by police sub-inspector Waseem Patel checked the mobile number used by Solanki to contact Ahmed. But it was registered in the name of some other person.

The police eventually got his photo from a CCTV grab, but that too did not help them. “We checked the bank account used in the commission of the crime, but that too was opened in someone else’s name, and the person was clueless about Solanki,” said a police officer.

The police then tracked the location of Solanki’s mobile, which showed that it was switched off as soon as he entered Lokmanya Nagar in Thane. “Our team then went to Lokmanya Nagar and showed the photographs taken from the CCTV grab to locals, and a few of them identified the accused as Solanki. We then picked him up and found out that a female was involved and used to help him in the crime,” the officer added.