Woman arrested 16yrs after duping group of Rs4 lakh under pretext of job

PUNE: The crime branch of the Pune police on Tuesday arrested a woman, 16 years after she allegedly duped multiple people of Rs4 lakh under the pretext of finding them jobs

PUNE: The crime branch of the Pune police on Tuesday arrested a woman, 16 years after she allegedly duped multiple people of Rs4 lakh under the pretext of finding them jobs.

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The arrested accused was identified as Rahat Alibali Sayyed alias Alka Bhagwandas Sharma, 54, a resident of Anandyog Society in Sakorenagar area of Vimannagar in Pune and a native of Jagirpuri, Delhi.

The police were investigating a 2005 case where a woman lost money to another woman who took the money under the pretext of getting the former and two of her friends employed in a foreign country. The complainant in the case, 32, and two of her friends paid a total Rs4 lakh to a group of three people, as per the complaint lodged in the case.

“Hawaldar Amol Pawar of Unit 1 of the crime branch on Tuesday received information from an anonymous source about a woman who had been booked 16 years ago and was now living in Vimannagar under a different name to hide her original identity,” read a statement issued by the police. The police set a trap early in the morning on Tuesday and nabbed the woman as she stepped out for her morning walk. She was living under the alias of Alka Sharma and kept giving the same name to the police till she was interrogated, the police said.

The woman has been arrested under sections 420 (cheating), 109 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code in the case registered at Khadak police station on July 4, 2005. The Khadak police are further investigating the case.