Anoop Parmar, a goldsmith in Thane was duped of Rs 13 lakh by his acquaintance. (Representational)
A 27-year-old small-time goldsmith was allegedly duped of Rs 13 lakh in old demonetised notes by two persons in Thane, police said today.
Anoop Parmar did petty jewellery work for some gold traders in Kalyan and mostly collected his payment in cash, a personnel in Mahatma Phule police station said.
Problems started for Mr Parmar after demonetisation of higher currency notes in November as he had a hefty sum of Rs 13 lakh in demonetised notes and was finding it difficult to exchange them with new ones.
He then met an acquaintance Balveersingh Bhavarsingh, who was also into the same business, the personnel said, adding that Bhavarsingh then offered help to Mr Parmar by assuring that he would exchange the old currencies for him or pay gold worth Rs 13 lakhs with help of his friend, Sagar Bhadoria.
Accordingly, on November 11, the victim handed over the cash to Bhavarsingh. And since then the duo has been untraceable.
Later, when Mr Parmar visited Bhavarsingh's shop in Mumbai, he came to know that the accused handed over his business to someone else and left the city.
The victim then lodged a case in this regard with Kalyan police under sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) rw 34 (common intention) of the IPC, police added.