Cops arrest conman who used helmet to hide face

PUNE: The arrest of 45-year-old Talib

Rafiq Baig

on August 6 has lifted the mystery surrounding a helmet-wearing conman who duped elderly shop owners and women cashiers offering to exchange currency since November 2016.

A Pimpri police team led by senior-inspector

Vivek Mugalikar

arrested Baig after constable Javed Pathan received a tip off.

A probe revealed that Baig had duped a woman cashier at MSEDCL’s bill collection centre in

Pimpri in February.

He told her that he needed a Rs 2,000 note with a particular number and offered her the change in Rs 500 notes.

On the pretext of checking the particular note, he took the bundle and made away with 17 notes worth Rs 34,000. He did not remove his helmet in the collection centre.

“We have also solved two cases in which Baig made away with Rs 31,000 by breaking the windows of two cars in Pimpri,” Mugalikar told TOI. “We have recovered Rs 55,750 from Baig,” he added.

A senior Pune police officer told TOI that the

crime branch

has taken Baig into custody to probe his involvement in cheating cases registered in different parts of the city since November 2016.

The officer said Baig would target shop owners when they opened the shutters or women cashiers in the afternoon. He would ask for Rs 2,000 notes offering change in Rs 100 notes. In some cases he sought Rs 2,000 notes ending in 11 or 51 by pretending that he needed it for a puja.

He would engage the person and pull out a few notes from the bundle and escape before the person realized he had been cheated, the officer said. “We expect to solve more cases of cheating and theft from

parked cars

,” the officer said.

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