‘Godmen’ cheat woman of gold worth Rs 8.5 lakh, arrested

Panaji: The police on Tuesday arrested two individuals who claimed to be godmen after they allegedly cheated a woman in Pernem on the pretext of performing special rituals that would bring her peace and prosperity and stealing gold ornaments worth Rs 8.5 lakh.
Amita Anant Naik, a resident of Parsem, in her complaint to the police, stated that at around 8.30am on Tuesday, Vijay Shinde, a resident of Solapur, Maharashtra, and two other unidentified men, all claiming to be ‘godmen’ came to her home. The police reported that all the accused were dressed like religious persons and induced the complainant to hand over her gold ornaments on the pretext of performing special rituals that would bring peace and prosperity to her. However, they failed to return the ornaments and fled, thereby misappropriating them.
“Hence, the accused cheated the complainant and committed a criminal breach of trust,” the police said.
During the course of investigation and based on inputs provided by the complainant, and through technical surveillance, the accused, Shinde and Dada So Gorakh Ingole, 43, also a resident of Solapur, were traced at Banda, Maharashtra.
“The stolen property, which includes 10 items of gold ornaments totally worth Rs 8.5 lakh, has been recovered and attached. The accused are presently in police custody. Investigation is in progress to find out if they are involved in any more offences in Goa having a similar modus operandi,” deputy superintendent of police, Ashish Shirodkar, said.


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