Pune: A woman (40) lodged a complaint with Swargate police alleging that a man she met on a matrimonial site stole her gold earrings worth Rs35,500 on Monday.Senior inspector Yashwant Nikam said, “The woman, unmarried, works as a salesperson at a garment shop in Ahilyanagar. The man had told her that he was the owner of a wine shop and a transport company in Pune and hailed from Mahabaleshwar in Satara.”They had been chatting on a messaging application for two months and decided to meet on Monday. They first met at Nashik Phata, from where they went to a temple in Shirgaon. There the man gave her his ‘gold chain’, stating that she was not wearing any, Nikam said.“The two then came to a mall in Shankarseth Road near Swargate and sat in a cafe on the fourth floor. The man asked her to show him her earrings and smartwatch, claiming that a goldsmith friend had come downstairs. He claimed that the goldsmith would make more beautiful earrings for her. She was already wearing his ‘gold chain’ and trusted him. She gave the items to him,” he said.The man then took the jewellery and walked out of the mall. “After calling him several times, the woman realised he had blocked her number. She then checked the gold chain he had given her and found it suspicious. It turned out to be a fake,” he said.“We are trying to locate the suspect using his mobile phone number,” Nikam said.
