Kerala man held for theft of 120 gold coins

PUNE: The Chandannagar police have arrested the man duping three persons here of gold coins worth Rs 32 lakh last year.
Sabri Arumugam Ganeshan (40) was arrested by the Kerala police in a similar case. The Pune crime branch got his custody recently.
On November 26, 2015, Ganeshan posed as Santosh alias Steve Godwin, a purchase manager with an IT firm, to place an order for 120 gold coins with a well-known jeweller from Ahmednagar.The glib talker who used his skill to convince the sellers about his offer. The jeweller sent a man with the coins to Ganeshan's office in an IT park in Kharadi, after which Ganeshan disappeared with the coins.
Ganeshan confessed to the Kerala police about this crime, after which Pune police obtained his custody on August 16. After two days, they recovered 93 coins worth Rs 27.2 lakh.
Deputy commissioner of police (zone IV) Kalpana Barawkar said Ganeshan had checked into a city hotel on November 21. He hired a cab from tour operator Parmeshwar Khaire of Kharadi. He told the cab driver, Balasaheb Nimbalkar, that he wanted to buy gold coins to distribute to his employees as bonus. Nimbalkar told Khaire about it.
On November 22, Khaire met Ganeshan in Kharadi and told him that a relative of his works with a famous jeweller in Ahmednagar. "Khaire contacted his relative and connected him to Ganeshan, who expressed his desire to buy 120 gold coins for his staff," said Barawkar.
Khaire's relative spoke to the shopowner. The jeweller agreed to send him the gold coins on the promise that Ganeshan would pay him in cash. The owner told Ganeshan to send a purchase order and quotation.
On November 26, when Khaire and an employee of the jeweller met Ganeshan at his office around 1pm, he told them to wait in the meeting room and requested the employee to hand over the coins to him as he wanted to show them to his director.
As the employee hesitated, he called Khaire, who was convinced by Ganeshan to hand over the coins.
When the employee hesitated, Ganeshan made him call the jeweller and convinced him. Khaire and the employee waited for 15 minutes.
When Ganeshan did not return, they asked the receptionist about him. On failing to find him, they approached the jeweller and subsequently lodged a police complaint.
Meanwhile, Ganeshan went to his hotel room in Khaire's cab and on the way, told the driver that he had made the payment for the gold coins. He collected his bags from the hotel and escaped to Mumbai and then Kerala.
Anil Patrudkar, senior inspector of Chandannagar police station, said he had alerted all state police departments about the suspect and his modus.
Ganeshan had committed a series of such offences at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and in Kerala as well. We have recovered 93 gold coins from his uncle in Ernakulam on August 21.