Raigad Local Crime Branch (LCB) has arrested six people including two police constables in major fraud case involving a fake gold deal. More two accused, including one police constable is wanted by the LCB. The arrested accused have been identified as Samadhan Pinjari (20), Shivkumar alias Deep Gaikwad (23), Vicky Subhash Sable (25), Sameer Mhatre (34), Vishal Pinjari (20) and Akshay Khot (25). The accused duped a jeweler of Rs 1.5 crore by staging a fake police raid and fleeing with the cash.
The scam began 15 days ago when Samadhan Pinjari, a 20-year-old private employee in Alibag, contacted Namdev Hulge, a Nagpur-based jeweler, claiming that his acquaintance, Shankar Kule, had 7 kg of gold available for a discounted price of Rs 5 crore. Believing the offer, Hulge discussed the deal with his relative, Omkar Waksha, a jeweler from Kamothe, Navi Mumbai.
On February 3, Hulge and his employee Nitin Pinjari arranged Rs 65 lakh and came to Kamothe from Nagpur, wherein they met Waksha who had arranged Rs 85 lakh, making a total of Rs 1.5 crore. The next day, they traveled to Alibag in Waksha’s Maruti Brezza car to Alibag. As per Samadhan Pinjari’s instructions, they met his friend, Gaikwad, at Palspe who was in an Innova car. Samadhan Pinjari convinced the victims to travel in only one vehicle, citing police checkpoints ahead. The group then proceeded in Gaikwad’s Innova car. After reaching Tinveera Dam near Alibag, Pinjari stopped the car and said that there was police checking ahead and it was better to get gold delivered by Kule near the dam.
Suddenly, two police officer constables—later identified as constables Samir Mhatre and Vicky Sable—arrived on a motorcycle. They pretended to conduct a police check, ordering Hulge and his associates to step out of the vehicle. The victims left their bags of cash inside the car, and Gaikwad sped away the vehicle with Rs 1.5 crore.
The policemen assured the victims they would chase the fleeing vehicle and left from the spot behind the car. Not knowing what to do, Hulge and his associates started walking towards Poynad, where they saw the supposed “policemen” escaping into a kachcha road.
The next day, on February 5, a constable Suryavanshi from Alibag Police Station allegedly called Hulge, accusing him of stealing Rs 2 crore and demanded his presence at the police station. Hulge met Suryawanshi at police station wherein the constable threatened to file an FIR and issue arrest warrants. “In order to make sure that Hulge does not report the incident anywhere, the accused had made Suryawanshi an accomplice in the crime to manage the complaint at police station level,” LCB Police Inspector Balasaheb Khade, said.
Fearing wrongful implication, Hulge and his team approached Raigad Superintendent of Police on February 7, to report the fraud.
Raigad Superintendent Somnath Gharge ordered an immediate inquiry following which PI KHade registered an FIR at Poynad Police Station under IPC sections 310(2), 351(2), and 198 against Samadhan Pinjari, Kule, Constable Suryavanshi, and two unidentified constables. On February 8, police arrested Samadhan Pinjari and Deep Gaikwad, and remanded them to police custody until February 14. Later, constables Mhatre and Sable were also arrested and have been remanded to police custody till February 12.
“In further investigations we found that the money was taken to Sangli and it was recovered from Vishal Pinjari and KHot who too have been arrested,” Khade added. These two would be produced before the court on Tuesday. According to police, the main accused Samadhan Pinjari and complainant Hulge belonged to the same hometown in Satara and were known to each other. “As of now we have not found any criminal history of the accused,” Khaded added.
