Three women among five held for stealing ornaments

A group of five, including three women, has been arrested for posing as potential customers at jewellery shops and decamping with
valuables. The crime branch trapped the gang, identified as Shekhar Borkar, Sunil Nehare, Saroj Ghodeshwar, Panchasheela Thool and Rajani Meshram, that had tricked some jewellers in the city last week.

Apart from the gang's getaway car, police also seized Rs 4,800 cash, stolen valuables, mobile phones and other material totalling around Rs 3.30 lakh.

Acting on a tip-off, crime branch squad under senior inspector Madhav Giri intercepted the gang near Maharajbagh on Saturday. Police said the thieves, posing as members of respectable families, visited jewellery shops in different places in and around the city. The jewellers, impressed by the words of the tricksters, would start displaying the ornaments and the gang members, using sleight of hand, would pocket the valuables and sneak out.