Jun2, (Mid-day): The conmen had approached the woman in Dadar and taken her to Ghatkopar, where they had looted her jewellery in March; the Dadar police managed to nab the accused last week

The Dadar police have arrested three conmen, who went about looting people posing as policemen. The trio had kidnapped a 40-year-old woman from Dadar on March 14 and looted her jewellery before letting her go.

The victim, Shakuntala Pawar, had lodged a complaint on March 16. The accused have been identified as Rajesh Bopardekar (45), Quaiserali Khan (47) and Shah Mohammad Shaikh (50).

The incident

On March 14, Shakuntala was distributing pamphlets of a fitness center near Shardashram Vidyalaya, Dadar West, when two men approached her. They identified themselves as policemen and asked her if she had sought police permission to distribute the pamphlets.

When Shakuntala replied in the negative, the duo allegedly picked her up and took her to Sion. At Sion, a third accomplice, Shaikh, arrived in an auto and the trio took the victim to Ghatkopar. Assistant police inspector, Deepali Kulkarni from Dadar police station, said, “The victim was distributing pamphlets of a fitness center, when Bopardekar and Khan approached the victim.

They asked her whether she had taken permission from the police station for distributing pamphlets.” Kulkarni added, “After taking her to Ghatkopar, the three accused asked her to cough up a fine for the illegal activity. When she stated that she did not have the money, the trio asked her to hand over her 30-gm gold mangalsutra and 10-gm gold earrings.”

Shaken and scared

Shaken by the incident, Shakuntala did not inform anyone about it. However, two days later, when her employer quizzed her, she narrated the ordeal. “After her employer asked the victim, she narrated her ordeal. He then brought her to the police station and we registered the offence.

Later, we got a tip-off about the accused. following which they were nabbed from Dadar. Though the accused have been committing crimes using the same modus operandi since 1994, they were arrested for the first time only last week,” added Kulkarni.

The accused have been booked under Sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 170 (personating a public servant) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.