16 December,2012 07:35 AM IST | | Sagar Rajput
The accused - Vijay Dattaram Tambe (42), Ganesh Shankar Mishri (35) and Rakesh Rajan Jadhav (30) - were picked up from Borivli railway station. The fourth accused, Rajesh Upadhyay, is still absconding.
The trio had an interesting modus operandi. Senior inspector of Borivli police station Bharat Worlikar said, "They removed rings while shaking hands with people and surreptitiously detached chains while touching them on their necks. They even succeeded in stealing watches.
The victims realised that they were conned long after the accused had vanished." One of their less creative tactics involved posing as plainclothes police officers. Worlikar added, "The men would dupe people by telling them there had been a murder in the area.
They would then ask them to remove their jewellery and keep it with them in a handkerchief. With a quick sleight of hand, they would replace the jewellery with stones."
The trio has been remanded to police custody till December 18.u00a0
