Alert citizen helps police arrest two conmen

Pune: A tip-off from an alert citizen helped the Khadak police nab two conmen, who attempted to dupe a 78-year-old woman on Thursday morning.

They tried to trick her by exchanging her gold ornaments with fake gold biscuits.

The suspects — Dilip Jadhav (48) and Manoj Chavan (18) — are from Latur district. Jadhav is a criminal on police records and has several similar cases of cheating registered against him. Pramila Girme of Sadashiv Peth has lodged the complaint against the duo.

On Thursday around 10.30pm, Girme was going to Mandai. When she reached Natubaug on Bajirao Road, the suspects stopped her and said that they had gold biscuits, which they wanted to sell for Rs 50,000. “When Girme told them that she had only Rs 500, the duo told her that the weight of each biscuit is about 100gm and asked Girme to give her gold ornaments in exchange for the biscuits,” sub-inspector Sanjay Gaikwad said.

Girme became suspicious and refused the offer. “A passerby, Amit Pawar of Dhankawdi, who overheard the conversation too became suspicious and alerted us,” Gaikwad said.

“Police constables Vinod Jadhav and Ravi Lokhande got information that the suspects were in Raviwar Peth. We laid a trap and arrested them. We have recovered two fake gold biscuits and a fake gold chain from them,” he added.