Mumbai: 62-year-old man arrested for cheating elderly woman, looting gold ornaments from her

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Govandi police have arrested a 62-year-old man for allegedly cheating an elderly woman and looting golden ornaments from her. The conman, who was arrested by the police, had earlier been booked for 58 offences and seven more offences have been detected.

An offence was registered on June 25, when a 70-year-old woman was cheated while going home. The incident took place when a senior citizen man walked upto her and told about the chaos ahead and asked her to take off her gold ornaments. The woman had no purse and the man offered the pouch he had to keep her ornaments. After moving on, when the woman checked the pouch she realised that it was empty and immediately informed her son. The accused stole 20-gram bangles worth Rs 80,000 from the woman.

Later, the woman along with her family rushed to the Govandi police station and registered an offence against the unknown person under IPC section 420 (cheating). When the police were scanning the CCTV footage, they found that the accused also tried to con another woman at Borba Devi Garden but failed. The CCTV footage also revealed that there are two more people involved.

Using the information received from other police stations, the Govandi police identified the accused as Asif Shabbir Sayyed.

"We were told by other cops that, the man's name is Asif Shabbir Sayyed, resident of Ambivali," told Senior Inspector Sudarshan Honwadajkar. A team was formed under the supervision of Inspector Nana Koyande and Police sub-inspector Amol Chede to trace the accused. "The cops were deputed at Ambivali to track the movement of the suspects," he added.

Through discreet inquiries, the police learned that one of the accused visits an eatery near the railway station every morning for tea and breakfast. On July 17, when the suspect arrived at the tea stall, he was nabbed by cops and brought to Govandi police station. Asif Shabbir Sayyed Irani has been booked in 58 offences registered in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Palghar till now. The arrest has also helped in solving seven different cases in Nehru Nagar, VB Nagar (Kurla), Vakola, and Azad Maidan registered in 2022.

"The modus operandi of the accused was that he used to track senior citizen women walking alone having golden ornaments on her body. He would tell them there is some scuffle or fight going on ahead and they are looting every passerby," told Senior Inspector Honwadajkar. "We are yet to arrest the accused's associates," he said.