New Delhi, March 6 A man allegedly impersonated a spiritual leader and defrauded a 65-year-old woman of her gold jewelry by claiming he could resolve her problems, an official said on Friday.
The accused, identified as Mithun, has been arrested and one piece of gold jewelry belonging to the victim has been recovered from him, police said.
According to police, the incident took place on March 3 when the complainant, Raj Rani (65), was returning home from her residence in Pitampura after completing household chores at a nearby house.
When she reached near the Tata Power NDPL office in Pitampura around 11.30 am, an unknown man approached her and introduced himself as a spiritual leader, claiming he could resolve her problems.
"Shortly after, another man joined them and pretended to seek the spiritual leader's help for his own issues, apparently to gain the trust of the elderly woman," the official said.
The accused then asked them to walk 151 steps with him, assuring that their problems would be solved through a ritual. The trio eventually reached under a foot overbridge, opposite a police booth. There, the "spiritual leader" allegedly asked the complainant to hand over her gold locket and earrings to the other person as part of the ritual.
"Deceived by their claims, the woman handed over the jewelry to them, after which the two men fled the scene," the official said.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered and a team analyzed CCTV footage from the area, police said.
During the investigation, police managed to identify and apprehend Mithun, who was later found to have been involved in similar crimes earlier, and had been previously arrested in Uttar Pradesh, the official added, noting that one gold locket taken from the complainant was recovered from his possession.
During interrogation, Mithun disclosed that he, along with his associate, had targeted the elderly woman and staged a spiritual leader act to deceive her into handing over her jewelry, police said.
Efforts are underway to recover the remaining jewelry and arrest the other accused, they added.