Vadodara: Three men have been arrested for the brazen con that blended a fake bank branch, staged job interviews and bogus banking officials to dupe a Dahod jeweller of gold worth Rs 28.6 lakh. Police have recovered the stolen gold.“We tracked down the accused using CCTV surveillance and our intelligence network. They had planned the crime over a few days,” said Jagdish Bhandari, DySP, Dahod.Those arrested are Deepak Rajput, a resident of Kheda, and Lalit Dataram and Aadil Wahid, residents of Rajasthan.Investigators said Rajput was the mastermind behind the heist and had roped in Dataram. The duo frequently travelled through Dahod while visiting Rajasthan and decided to target a jewellery showroom in the town.“The accused picked Gandhi’s jewellery shop and began planning the con job,” Bhandari told TOI.The three arrived in Dahod on July 14 and surveyed Gandhi’s shop with Wahid’s help. The same day, they rented a property and arranged furniture to make the premises resemble a bank branch.On July 15, Dataram visited Gandhi’s shop and introduced himself as a bank employee. He told the jeweller that his bank intended to donate 200g of gold during the Jagannath Rath Yatra in the town and that the bank manager would contact him regarding the purchase.Later that day, Gandhi received a call and was asked to deliver the gold bars to the purported bank on July 16. After Gandhi quoted Rs 28.6 lakh for 200g of gold, he visited the premises with the consignment.To bolster the deception, the accused had called several people for purported bank job interviews at the same time, making them appear to be employees of the bank.Rajput met Gandhi and introduced himself as the bank manager. He told the jeweller that the bank would begin operations that very day. Rajput then took possession of the gold, and said he would get cash from the locker room.He returned with a bag and handed it to Gandhi, saying it contained half the payment. Rajput then went back into the “locker room” but did not return. After waiting several minutes, Gandhi got suspicious and entered the room, only to find it empty.Investigators said Rajput had slipped out through another exit with the gold. When Gandhi opened the bag handed to him, he found only blank papers inside.Police said both Rajput and Dataram have previously been booked in cheating cases.Duo met in jailInvestigators said the accused had read about from a similar modus operandi used by a gang in Maharashtra several years ago.Deepak Rajput and Lalit Dataram had met while lodged in Vadodara Central Jail a few years ago. They remained in contact and recently chalked out the plan for the heist, police said.
