Loans – Gang that took gold loans by pawning fakes busted, 4 held | Mumbai News

MUM(BA)I: The police busted a racket in which a businessman from Nalasopara allegedly joined hands with housewives looking to make some easy money and got them to mortgage imitation jewellery with jewellers, by falsely claiming it was gold. Harishchandra Soni (45) has been arrested with Salma Qazi (48) Gudiya Khan (24) and Salma Baig (38).
On January 20, a woman walked into Kangan Jewellers near Dahisar railway station. She spoke to the shop owner, Mahendra Bafna, and said she desperately needed money. She said her children’s school fees were to be paid and she needed a loan against gold. She mortgaged a chain with Bafna and took Rs 25,000. Later, Bafna found that the chain was not made of gold. He lodged a complaint at Dahisar police station.
The police checked CCTV footage from the jewellery store in Dahisar and the woman had been captured on camera. They then circulated these images among their network of informers and eventually received a tip-off that a woman resembling the one caught on camera lived in Nalasopara. She was taken into custody and Bafna identified her.
The woman (Qazi) told the cops that the chain had been given to her by her sister (Khan) who lived in Naigaon. A police team then picked up Khan from Naigaon.
Khan told the police that her acquaintance (Baig) had given her the chain with the specific intention of mortgaging it with a jeweller, claiming that it was made of gold. All the three women were well aware that the chain was a piece of imitation jewellery and were conning the store owner, said the police.
Baig was supposed to give a commission to Khan from the money received from the mortgage. A major chunk of the amount was pocketed by Soni, who the police say is the mastermind.
“Soni is well versed with the jewellery business and the imitation jewellery that was pawned was cleverly made,” said an officer.