Man cheats family of Rs 4 lakhs under pretext of doubling it

The accused Rajendra Chavhan. Picture/Anurag Kamble

The cops at Navghar police station have arrested a 38-year-old for allegedly stealing golden ornaments worth Rs 4 lakh after ensuring a family of doubling it within 90 days. Rajendra Chavhan had visited a house in Mulund and claimed that he possesses a magical power through which he can double money or gold. The family fell for his claims and had given Chavhan their golden ornaments with which he fled.

In November 2019, a 42-year-old housewife approached Chavhan who identified himself as baba and claimed he has magical powers. "At first when he visited the complainants' place, he did some tricks such as turning blank paper into 500 rupee note or converting plastic bangle into golden one," said an officer from Navghar police station.

The family was amazed to see the tricks and believed it to be the result of his superpower. Further, Chavhan did small rituals as Gruh Shuddhikaran (Purification of home) and told, if they trust him he can double their valuables in 90 days. Chavhan got the family in his confidence and agreed to hand him their gold ornaments.

"The family then handed over their golden ornaments worth Rs 4 lakh to Chavhan, which he placed inside a metal box and asked the family to keep in a storeroom of the house," said the officer. Chavhan pretended of doing rituals for 4 days after that and left the house asking them not to open the box till the next 90 days, He warned them that if they open the box, snakes will emerge come out of the box and kill the family members.

After waiting for 90 days, when the family opened the box and found it empty, they rushed to Navghar police station and registered a complaint against Chavhan. "We registered a case against Chavhan of cheating and breach of trust," said Pushkraj Suryavanshi, Senior Inspector of Navghar police station.

A team was formed under the leadership of Inspector Dipali Kulkarni, Assistant Police Inspector Anil Rajguru, constable Vijay Mahagaonkar, Pankaj Bhosale, and Vinayak Ambre to nab Chavhan.

"After tracking Chavhan for 10 days we finally managed to nab him from Hyderabad, where he was trying to sell the ornaments," told Inspector Kulkarni. "We have recovered all the ornaments stolen," she added.

Chavhan, a resident of Solapur was into a poultry business in which he incurred loss to the tune of Rs 10 lakh. He had mortgaged his ancestral land to repay the debt. To get easy money, he decided to con people by claiming that he has the power of doubling gold.

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