The Kalwa police arrested four members of a gang that allegedly mortgaged fake gold jewellery as real to avail a loan of Rs 14 lakh against it.
The arrested accused have been identified as Sushant Salvi (35); Rasbihari Emanna (34); Liyakat Shaikh alias Raju Shana (43); and Aniket Kadam (34). The gang had cheated Muthoot Finance branches at Kalwa, Thane, Dadar and Mazgaon by mortgaging metal ornaments with gold plating as real jewellery.
“We found that Emanna had made the polished ornaments (1,000 grams) at his Chiplun residence. Out of this, 688 grams of ornaments were mortgaged for `13.45 lakh,” said Dr D.S. Swami, deputy commissioner of police (zone 1), Thane.
The officials said that the accused also duped other cooperative credit societies in Ratnagari and Mumbai, details of which are being gathered. The fakes came to light during screening, following which a complaint was registered with the Kalwa police station. During investigation, the police found that the accused had duped other institutions too. The police is now in the process of gathering more evidence.
