Mumbai man poses as crime branch officer, accuses jeweller of buying stolen gold, dupes him of Rs84,000

A 32-year-old man was arrested on Saturday for allegedly impersonating a crime branch officer and making a jeweller cough up Rs84,000 by threatening to arrest him

A 32-year-old man was arrested on Saturday for allegedly impersonating a crime branch officer and making a jeweller cough up Rs84,000 by threatening to arrest him for allegedly buying stolen gold ornaments.

Picture for representation

According to the Mahim police, the accused has been identified as Nishant Parmar, 32, and is a resident of Dahisar. The complainant Jayantilal Jain, 61, runs a jewellery shop called Sanghvi Jewellers in Mahim.

Jain received a phone call on September 23 at 6.30 am from Parmar, who used a fictitious name and identified himself as a crime branch officer from the Pune Government Railway Police (GRP). The accused said that he has arrested a woman who confessed that she had sold Jain gold ornament weighing 64 grams back in 2015 , which she had stolen from a passenger on a railway station in Pune.

He said that he wanted to make full recovery in the case and demanded Jain to return the gold ornament. Assuming that Jain would not go to police, Parmar asked him to be present before the local police and added that he will see him there.

Jain then inquired with the Pune police and found that no such officer works with them, after which he complained to the Mahim police, who registered an FIR on October 9 under section 420 (cheating) and 170 (impersonating a public servant) of the IPC. The accused was traced based on technical evidence and arrested on Saturday from Dahisar.