Some high-tech jewellery fraud in Bengaluru has recently come to light. They said city-based fraudsters had duped a city-based jeweller and fled with gold ornaments amounting to close to Rs 3 crore. It was a crime on Sampige Road in Malleswaram.
New fears of organised financial crimes that could continue targeting businessmen abound in the city. Police in Nagarathpet discovered that the seller of the famous Mehta Jewellery was the victim. The attacker reportedly convinced the jeweller he was looking to purchase gold ornaments at wholesale rates.
By the process, it was reported, they had pocketed some 1 kg 850 grams of gold jewellery worth around Rs 3 crore. The fraud was meticulously and with extreme foresight, investigators say. The prime defendant, Paresh Soni, contacted the jewellery-owner claiming to run a business called “Mahi Enterprises,” and claimed to require great quantities of jewellery for his business activities, as reported by the media.
The accused subsequently launched a fake office in Malleswaram to provide an illusion of a bona fide transaction, he said. The fraudsters also temporarily established false name boards with words “Lotus Jewellery” and “Mahi Enterprises” printed near an office building that was not related to their activities, according to the police.
When his manager saw the deal in the true sense and thought it could be profitable, the jewellery shop owner instructed him to take approximately 3 kilograms of gold ornaments to Sampige Road in order to be scrutinised and finalised. Paresh Soni reportedly studied the ornaments and acted as if he was reviewing both the designs and the quality of them at the office with each of the jewellery when he was supposed to arrive. He later allegedly passed the jewellery to his partner, whom he identified as Chandrashekhar, to compile a detailed inventory list.
The defendant later took the ornaments to a nearby cabin, telling them they must take a photo of the jewellery and collect paperwork, the police said. But when the suspects got inside the next room, they reportedly vanished with the gold ornaments. The jewellery manager was initially distrustful once an accused person went missing for too long, so he went inside to check the office, only to find that the fraudsters had escaped.
The victims contacted the police later. After the complaint, a case at Malleswaram Police Station was initiated against Shyam, Ramachandra, and Paresh Soni. Police are pursuing a vigorous investigation and surveillance on CCTV footage from around the area to track down the suspects and determine their whereabouts.
Detectives believe that the accused is a leader of a network that is linked to a fraud group to defraud jewellers and business people via bogus wholesale transactions. Investigators are also investigating whether similar crimes have been committed by the same group in other cities.
An episode like this has done serious damage to the Bengaluru business community. Traders, in turn, have said that the authorities should ensure that verification systems are enhanced to prevent fraudulent business arrangements from being accepted. Jewellers and other high-value merchants have told police to check how these clients account for their goods before they relocate high-value goods to new locations.
As investigations run on, the authorities said they’re hopeful that CCTV footage, combined with digital logs of communications, would help identify and take into custody the men who committed a multi-crore gold robbery.
