The VB Nagar police have arrested a 35-year-old man from Ambernath on Monday who posed as a priest and duped a 30-year-old woman of her jewellery at Kurla. The accused identified as Bajrang Bhande has previous cases of duping people in a similar manner, said VB Nagar police officials.
According to VB Nagar police officials, the woman was at her residence with her son at Ambedkar Nagar in Kurla when Bhande pretending to be a priest went to her house, and told her that members in the family were falling ill because an evil eye had been cast on them.
Bhande then told the woman that he would perform some rituals to cast away the evil eye, and asked her to get all the gold ornaments in the house to perform the ritual.
Bhande then used to sleight of hands and took away the jewellery.
The police said the woman approached the VB Nagar police and registered a case at 4pm on July 4, under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian penal code. The VB Nagar police checked past records to find similar modus operandi of cheating in the past, and found that an accused from Ambernath was arrested in a similar case in 2016, and narrowed down on Bhande. “Later, with the help of Shivaji Nagar police in Ambernath, Bhande was arrested," said a police officer.
