Mulund jeweller loses ₹4.50 lakh on ‘doctor’s’ bangles

A jeweller from Mulund was cheated to the tune of ₹4

A jeweller from Mulund was cheated to the tune of ₹4.50 lakh by two persons one of whom posed as a doctor.

Mumbai, India - September 30, 2022: A general view of the closed Siddhivinayak Jewellers, at Mulund, in Mumbai, India, on Friday, September 30, 2022. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

According to the police, Macchindra Jadhav, 45, owns Siddhivinayak Jewellers on J N road. On Wednesday, he got a call from a woman who identified herself as Dr Neha Kelkar working with Hema Hospital. She even claimed that she got his number from Dr Hema.

“The woman told Jadhav that she wanted to make two bangles and was ready to pay ₹1.5 lakh in advance. The jeweller was asked to come to the hospital to take the measurement. Later, she asked him to carry ₹4.5 lakh in the denomination of ₹500,” an officer from Mulund police station said.

She told him that she would pay him ₹6 lakh, lying with her in ₹2,000 notes, in exchange for ₹4.50 lakh to be given by the jeweller and he could keep ₹1.5 lakh as the advance money. She even told him that she was in operation theatre and would send his man around 4 pm to meet him.

The jeweller then sent one of his employees, Ashish Wadekar, with ₹4.50 lakh in cash. “Wadekar was stopped by a man on the staircase of the hospital. The man told him that his mother was in the operation theatre and the doctor had asked him to collect the bag, and the measurement for making the jewellery was to be taken at her home,” the police officer said.

The unidentified man then took Wadekar to a nearby building and asked him to go to flat number 201 on the second floor to take the measurement and ₹6 lakh. The man, however, collected from Wadekar the bag containing ₹4.50 lakh.

“Wadekar kept ringing the doorbell for some time and then learned from a neighbour that Dr Kelkar didn’t stay there. He immediately went back to the hospital and inquired with a nurse who said there was no such doctor working with the hospital,” the officer said.

Based on a complaint by Jadhav, the police registered a cheating case.

“We are trying to identify the man through CCTV footage and also trying to trace the mobile phone numbers which were used to contact the jeweller,” the officer said.