30-yr-old held for duping 4 jewellers

Pune: The Deccan Gymkhana police on Wednesday arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly attempting to purchase a gold chain from a jewellery shop on Karve Road by submitting fake receipts of transactions made through electronic funds transfer.
Police identified the suspect as Vishrut Bhalchandra Navathe of Shaniwar Peth in Satara district. Navathe had duped three more jewellers to the tune of Rs 2.60 lakh, investigations showed.
V N Pansare, sub-inspector of the Deccan Gymkhana police station, told TOI that on Wednesday afternoon Navathe went to a jewellery shop on Karve Road. He chose a gold chain worth about Rs 90,000 and paid Rs 10,000 in cash.
“He told the cashier that he would pay the rest through National Electronic Funds Transfer. He produced the bank’s receipt to the jeweller and told the manager he had paid the money through his cellphone,” Pansare said. The manager grew suspicious and sought details. “When the suspect failed to give them, the manager alerted us. We arrested Navathe,” Pansare said.
He admitted that he had duped three more jewellers from the city by using the same modus. “We summoned them to the police station and they identified Navathe,” Pansare said. On January 1, Navathe had stolen gold ornaments worth Rs 1.09 lakh from a Nigdi-based jewellery shop. Later, he duped two jewellers from Raviwar Peth in Pune, police said.
Navathe would enter the jewellery shops, select costly ornaments, pay Rs 10,000 and tell the shop owners that he would pay the rest through NEFT. “He used to send fake SMSs of funds transfers on the cellphone of the shop owner and used to furnish a ‘receipt’ of the transaction.
Believing him, the shop owner would hand over the ornaments,” Pansare said. He was produced before the court on Thursday and remanded in police custody for two days.