Alipurduar, May 15 -- After Dhupguri and Falakata, the activities of a gang of fraudsters posing as police personnel have now surfaced in Alipurduar town. An elderly woman was allegedly duped of gold jewellery worth nearly Rs 5 lakh in broad daylight on Friday in the busy College Halt area of the district headquarters.
The victim, Putul Sarkar, a resident of Surya Nagar under Alipurduar Municipality, had gone to a bank in the College Halt area around 11:30 am to submit KYC-related documents. According to allegations, after stepping out of the bank to get photocopies of certain papers, she was approached by three youths posing as police officers. Describing the incident, Putul Sarkar said: "One of the youths introduced himself as a police officer and warned me about a recent snatching incident in the area. They asked me to remove my jewellery for safety. When I followed their instructions, they wrapped the ornaments in a piece of paper and handed it back to me. Later, I found that the packet no longer contained my jewellery."
Putul Sarkar lodged a written complaint at Alipurduar Police Station.
Similar incidents using the same modus operandi were recently reported in Falakata and Dhupguri, where fraudsters allegedly fled with jewellery worth over Rs 10 lakh. Police have started an investigation into the incident.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.