Chandigarh: Three women, believed to be members of an organised gang, allegedly duped two jewellers in Sector 56 of Rs 4.12 lakh by showing them fake messages of online payments for jewellery.
The women purchased jewellery from the stores and claimed that they had made online payments for it, which were never made. The incidents were reported from Verma Jewellers and Shree Ram Jewellers on the evening of January 2. Piyush Verma, owner of Verma Jewellers, claimed that two women, accompanied by a child and a girl, arrived at his store to purchase jewellery. “They selected jewellery, including two chains, three gents’ gold rings and an earring set from my shop worth Rs 1.91 lakh,” Verma said.
He said they offered to make the payment through a cheque, which he refused after which they offered to make an online payment. “They took my bank account number and claimed that they would ask their family members to transfer the money. They showed me a screen shot mentioning that the amount had been transferred to my account. However, I didn’t receive any message on my mobile regarding the payment,” Verma said.
The women then told Verma that they would go and shop further and would collect the jewellery later.
Two of them then went to Shree Ram Jewellers and purchased jewellery worth around Rs 2.21 lakh. The suspects adopted the same modus operandi and cheated the store owner, Ashwani Kumar, by claiming that the payment had been made online. “They showed me a message mentioning that the transaction had been successful, and I believed them,” Kumar said.
The suspects then again went to collect the jewellery from Verma Jewellers. However, since the money had still not been transferred to his bank account, Verma refused to give the jewellery. “At first, the women said they would wait till the time the money was transferred, but later they said they were getting late as it was already 10 pm. I then took their particulars and address, after which they left,” Verma said.
Both jewellers came to know that they had been cheated after the payments did not get transferred to the accounts even on January 3.
The address of Jujhar Nagar, Mohali, provided by the suspects, turned out to be fake. The jewellers reported the matter to the police following which an investigation was initiated at the Sector 39 police station.
One of them tries to sell jewellery, detained
One of the women went to a jewellery store in Sector 22 on Friday to sell the same jewellery.
The store owner, who had already seen the CCTV footage of the suspect, identified her and informed the police. The police later detained the woman for investigation.
Gang also tried to dupe Mohali jeweller
The women also visited Jain Jewellers in Mohali the same day. They selected jewellery worth around Rs 5 lakh and offered a cheque, which the store owner, Ashish Jain, refused. The women then left and later called up to ask if Jain had received the payment. “They sent me a screen shot of the money having been transferred through the RTGS. However, on seeing the message, I came to know that it was fake following which I told them I didn’t want to sell them jewellery,” he said.
