Rajkot: A Porbandar man was arrested for allegedly cheating two jewellers of a total of Rs 5.20 lakh by falsely claiming that his gold ornaments were pledged with a bank and seeking money to repay the loan, saying he would sell the jewellery to them.Mahesh Jogiya (60), who owns a jewellery shop in Sonibazaar, lodged a complaint of cheating against Sejaj Yusuf Mir at Kirti Mandir police station.It states that Mir visited Jogiya’s shop around 11.20am on Sep 7 and claimed that two bangles, a ring and other gold ornaments had been pledged with a bank branch near Chhaya Swaminarayan Temple. He allegedly told Jogiya he wanted to repay the loan, release the ornaments and sell them to him.Trusting the claim, Jogiya accompanied Mir to the bank branch with cash. The money was deposited into Mir’s bank account towards repayment of the alleged gold loan.Mir then allegedly told Jogiya that he needed photocopies of his Aadhaar and PAN cards and had to collect the loan receipt from his home. He took the jeweller towards Chhaya Darbargadh and asked him to park his scooter outside a street before leaving on the pretext of collecting the receipt.When Mir did not return, Jogiya repeatedly called him but received no response. He later approached the bank branch and found that no gold ornaments had been pledged in Mir’s name.After discovering the alleged fraud, Jogiya approached the police.Police said Mir used a similar modus operandi to cheat another Sonibazaar jeweller, Rajesh Shantilal Paida, of Rs 3 lakh. Investigators said the accused collected a total of Rs 5.20 lakh from the two jewellers.Kirti Mandir police inspector Pravin Parmar said they had arrested Mir and his accomplice, Pravin Parmar, soon after receiving the complaint.
