Jeweller sells off widow’s mortgaged ornaments

VADODARA: A widow was allegedly cheated by a jeweller having his shop at Harinagar in Gotri.
The victim Jagruti Prajapati had taken a loan of Rs five lakh from jeweller Jignesh Soni by mortagaging her ornaments of the same value in September 2015.
On Tuesday, Prajapati told the Gotri police in her complaint that she took a loan from Soni at the rate of two per cent interest to purchase a house in the city.The remaining amount for the house was given by her late husband Piyush, who lived in USA then. Prajapati used to regularly pay interest to Soni in cash, she said.
After some months, Piyush sent her Rs five lakh to repay the loan amount. However, instead of paying the entire amount, Prajapati went to Soni with Rs four lakh and asked him to return her jewellery. She promised him to repay the remaining Rs one lakh in short time. Soni instead told her that he will return the jewellery only when the entire payment is done and assured her that her ornaments are safe with him.
Two months later Prajapati went to Soni with the remaining amount, but Soni told her that he had sold her jewellery to somebody else. The complainant later learnt that since Soni’s debt had increased, he sold off Prajapati’s ornaments. On Tuesday, an FIR was registered against Soni at Gotri police station.