Two jewellery fraudsters nabbed

Rajkot: Two fraudsters, who used to dupe their victims of their jewellery with the lure of making their ornaments double, were arrested from Vadala railway crossing in Junagadh on Friday night.
The accused were identified as Abubakar Ghanchi (43), a resident of Keshod in Junagadh district, and Salim Makwana (57), a resident of Harshadnagar locality of Junagadh.

“We had received a tip-off about the accused duo coming from Keshod to sell off stolen booty and kept a watch at Vadala railway crossing. When the duo arrived, we intercepted them. We found two gold bangles worth Rs 60,000 and two earrings worth Rs 20,000 in their possession. As they could not produce the bills of the jewellery, we quizzed them. They confessed to having stolen them,” said J M Vala, inspector of Junagadh SOG . During interrogation, the duo said they would convincing victims that they would double their jewellery.

“They would choose senior citizens as targets. One of them would ask an old lady the address of Khodiyar temple, while the other would approach her and tell her that the person who had asked her the address of the temple was a saint blessed with magical powers. Then, they would tell the lady that if she put her jewellery in a handkerchief, the jewellery would be doubled. Then they would hoodwink her, replace her handkerchief with their handkerchief containing fake jewellery and flee the spot,” Vala explained the modus operandi.

The accused confessed to committing nine such crimes.