Striking a family chord with unknown ‘wealthy’ men in busy public areas and drawing them to a secluded place to rob them of their valuables has become the latest trend in Jagtial district.
A woman accosting seemingly wealthy strangers by posing questions like ‘You just look like my husband, and What is your name?’ has thrown a salacious net that has come to the light.
Jagtial police have arrested a woman and three of her aides, who were involved in tricking men into believing that they had a ‘relationship’ that eventually ended in looting them.
Though the gang robbed around a dozen men, the victims could not reveal the matter with anyone, not even with the police, fearing social stigma and break up from families.
To hide the matter and to avoid family disharmony, some even went to a jewellery shop and purchased the same model of ornaments by shelling out huge amounts of money. Others followed suit by purchasing similar models of mobile phones, which they ‘lost’ in the honey trap laid by the con woman’s gang.
The daylight robbery by the gang came to light earlier this week after one of the victims approached Medipalli police in the district by lodging a complaint of chain-snatching.
But it was not long before the police realised that his chain was not snatched and it was a cock and bull story that he had been weaving all along to divert the attention of police and to placate his family. When police started questioning about the sequence of events, he spilled the beans and narrated the entire episode to the investigators.
Speaking to The Hindu , Jagtial Superintendent of Police Sindhu Sarma said that in some cases, accused Mamidi Jamuna (40) approached men she knew from before, while in others, the victims were strangers.
“She narrows down on middle-aged men wearing gold ornaments and strikes up a conversation, offers favour, and takes them to an isolated place. Within no time, the other gang members, who were following them, attack the victim, threaten and rob of the gold, cash and other valuables,” she said.
The other members of the gang are Jamuna’s alleged boyfriend Kukati Rajkumar (21), and his friends Naluvala Thulasi (21) and Kolapaka Dinesh (21), all residents of different villages in the district.
According to Ms. Sarma, the accused has been committing the offences for the past two months and so far, they have robbed more than eight men. She said that Jamuna met Rajkumar in October and hatched a conspiracy to rob men by luring them with sexual favour.
“Initially, we apprehended Jamuna after tracking the looted mobile phone of one of the victims, and after analysing her call records, the other three were picked up,” she said, adding that another woman from Raikal was still at large.
Police recovered 145 grams of gold ornaments, three mobile phones and a bike, all worth ₹8 lakh, from the possession of the accused.
