“In May one Bhagyashree Mahesh Koli, a housewife, had registered a complaint alleging that her mangalsutra had been stolen by two men who visited her house to ‘inform’ her about a lottery she had won. According to Koli, a man took her mother-in-law to a place where he claimed the lottery prize was being distributed. He, however, asked for her mangalsutra which he claimed was needed as a qualifier to claim the prize,” said assistant police inspector B M Powar. While Koli’s mother-in-law waited for the man at the said spot, he never returned following which the women approached the police.

“Last week we arrested two brothers Suresh Bapu Chavan alias Raja Budhiya Kale (25) and Sanjay Manshiram Kale alias Dada Budiya Kale (28) and Chavan’s mother-in-law Chanda Kisan Pawar (45). The Charkop police nabbed Sanjay and Pawar. We arrested Chavan when he was trying to flee with the jewellery of another victim. Their interrogation established that they were all members of the same family and we are on the lookout for a woman named Pushpa,” said Powar.

Police officials said that the men of the family would dupe people to get ornaments. The women would sell them to jewellers. “The accused claimed that they had resorted to duping people around two years back and had duped over 200 victims. The family has bought two one-room flats in Dombivli and 20 acres of land in their village. We also found flat documents with their names on them,” said Powar.

Several such cases of gullible women falling prey to impostors are reported all the year round. According to police officials, the impostors are rarely caught and hardly feature in criminal records. The Trombay police learnt that this too was a part of the family’s ploy to cover their tracks. “We faced a difficulty in unearthing their previous criminal records as the accused would give fake names after arrest. We visited Chavan’s native village and procured documents which contained their real names,” said Powar.