Pune bizman arrested for cheating man of ₹2 crore under the guise of selling cheaper gold

Pune businessman arrested by Mumbai crime branch for cheating case involving drug queen Baby Patankar, accused of duping a Customs agent of ₹2 crore for 5 kg gold.

MUMBAI: A Pune businessman was arrested by the Mumbai crime branch last week for his alleged connection to a cheating case involving drug queen Shashikala also known as Baby Patankar, registered against them for allegedly duping a Customs clearing agent from South Mumbai of around ₹2 crore under the guise of selling him 5 kg gold at cheaper rates.

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The accused, Parshuram Munde, was issued a notice under section 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), but he did not cooperate in the investigation, and because there was no recovery, he was arrested, said a crime branch officer.

He was produced before a court on Monday and remanded to judicial custody.

Patankar, known to be the drug mafia, allegedly introduced the artificial stimulant mephedrone or Meow-Meow in the city. Patankar was, however, not arrested in the case as she got protection from the Bombay high court in October last year. But, before that, she was absconding for almost one-and-a-half months after the sessions court rejected her anticipatory bail plea.

A cheating case was registered with the Worli police on September 14 last year and was transferred to the crime branch for investigation.

Chavan’s friend introduced him to a woman, Sunita Chaudhary, who lives in Andheri, and she introduced him to Parshuram Munde, who claimed to be a director at RRM Gold Trading Pvt Ltd.

Munde then told Chavan that he buys gold in Customs auctions at cheaper rates than the market price. According to Chavan, he called him on October 21, 2021, and introduced him to Patankar, claiming she had five kilograms of raw gold, which was available for sale.

Chavan said Patankar showed him a total of 6.5 kg gold – five gold bars weighing 1 kg each and 15 gold biscuits weighing 100 grams each– and he verified and found the gold to be genuine. Munde then gave the complainant two bills. The first bill was ₹1.31 crore for three kg of gold, and the second was ₹87.69 lakh for the remaining two kg of gold.

Chavan said as per their demand, he transferred an amount of ₹1.27 crore to Munde through RTGS transfer and went to Worli to collect the gold from Patankar. The woman, however, told him that she had received only ₹1.15 crore and would only hand over the gold after receiving full payment for the 5 kg gold, as was agreed between them, the police officer said.

As Munde insisted that he should arrange the balance funds in cash, the complainant arranged and paid ₹70 lakh to Patankar in cash on October 25, 2021. But Chavan said that Patnakar took the cash and left to get the gold but never returned.