Navi Mumbai: After three months of investigation, the detection branch team of Rabale police has arrested a gang of two men and a teenager for cheating a 59-year-old housemaid by decamping with her gold ornaments worth Rs 1.54 lakh under the pretext of offering freebies, reports George Mendonca.The trio approached the woman on the street in Gothivali village while she was returning home from work on Dec 24 around 12.10 pm. They told her that their employer was distributing sarees as gifts to poor women as he was blessed with a son. They took her to a building nearby where she was made to keep her gold chain and earrings in her purse by claiming that she should appear poor or else she will not get the saree as a gift. By pretending to help in keeping the purse in her cloth bag, in a sleight of hand, one of them flicked her purse. They told her to wait at the building and that they would bring their employer to her and gift her a saree, but they did not return.Balkrushna Sawant, senior inspector of Rabale, said that an FIR of cheating with common intention was registered after a complaint was lodged by the victim woman identified as Anusaya Datta Shinde, a resident of Gothivali village. The arrested accused are Ashok Kale (22), Vishnu Pawar (27) and Lakhan alias Kartik Kale (19). They were traced to their residences in Koparkhairane on Sunday after scanning the CCTV camera footage of the crime scene and the stretch of road towards which they escaped with the booty. The accused have committed similar offences in Gujarat, Thane and Mumbai.
