Sandeep Jain, son of a well-known Dadar-based metal merchant, posed as a textile shop owner and swindled a jeweller out of Rs 90,000 worth of gold biscuits. He was finally nabbed when he tried cheating another jeweller
Sandeep Babulal Jain’s luck finally ran out on Saturday when he tried swindling one jeweller too many. Jain, who was arrested for cheating several jewellers in Dadar and Zaveri Bazar, posed as the owner of a textile shop and had the guts to walk into the shop of an unsuspecting textile merchant and tell people he owned it.
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According to cops, the money Jain earned from selling off the gold was spent on alcohol and bar girls. The 32-year-old had recently cheated a jeweller of Rs 90,000 but was caught when he tried his luck at another shop.
“The accused arrived at the shop of one Prafulla Jain in the third week of October and asked the latter to show him a gold biscuit. After a while, Sandeep pretended to call his partner and requested Prafulla to come to a textile shop nearby on October 22, to seal the gold biscuit deal,” said an officer from Dadar police station. Sandeep then walked in to the aforementioned textile shop and asked the unsuspecting shopkeeper to await his partner who would come on October 22 to buy a large quantity of clothes.
On the chosen day when Prafulla arrived at the shop, he and Sandeep had a long discussion about the gold biscuit deal. Sandeep cleverly spoke in their common mother tongue Marwari, which the shop owner didn’t understand. “He thought the two partners were deciding how many clothes to buy,” a police officer investigating the case said.
“So while the jeweller thought the shop belonged to Sandeep and the cloth merchant, the cloth merchant thought Sandeep and Prafulla were business partners. Finally, Sandeep casually asked the jeweller to hand over the 27.8 gram gold biscuit to him, promising to return in five minutes with the money,” added the officer.
When Sandeep didn’t return, Prafulla asked the clothes shop owner to call his ‘partner’ to which the shocked shopkeeper replied saying he didn’t even know Sandeep.
A case was registered and Sandeep’s details were sent out to jewellers across south Mumbai. A few days back, the accused arrived at Dadar TT to swindle another jeweller and was finally nabbed. “After Prafulla registered a case, we sent out messages to every jeweller about this man. The fact that his face was known to many since he is the son of a well-known Dadar-based metal merchant, made our jobs easier” said the officer.
During the course of interrogations, the police team learnt that the accused had sold the gold biscuit he stole from Prafulla, to a Zaveri Bazar shop. A team consisting of police sub-inspector Sunil Jatak and constables Baigankar, Chavan and Pawar then went to the shop and recovered the gold biscuit.
In his confession to the cops, Sandeep said after selling thegold he then checked in to a hotel in Kalyan and spent morethan Rs 40,000 on bar girls and alcohol. After spending the cash, he returned to Dadar to cheat others. Sadly for him, his luck ran out this time.u00a0