BENGALURU: MADIWALA police have arrested a 35-year-old habitual offender, Mohamed Munazir, who posed as a priest and robbed an elderly woman promising to cure her of paralysis. The incident took place a week ago. He had pledged the gold. Police have also booked the owner of a gold loan company for accepting stolen property. Munazir, a resident of Koli Farm Gate on Bannerghatta Road, was involved in similar cases in Hanumantha Nagar and Tilak Nagar in 2016.
A senior police officer said Munazir used to target elderly women. He would offer juice laced with sleeping pills which would render them unconscious and then decamp with gold jewellery. On November 6, Munazir targeted Puttamma (85) and her daughter Rathnamma, residents of BTM Layout. He asked them to wear all their gold jewellery during the ritual. Later, he gave them a juice laced with an anesthetic, calling it holy water. When they lost consciousness, he stole their jewellery.
“Police tracked his phone. He was picked up for interrogation and he confessed to have conned Puttamma and her daughter,” police said. Munazir was working as a sofa repairman. In Hanumantha Nagar, he had duped four elderly women in 2016 in an interval of two months and during interrogation, he confessed to 13 similar cases. He introduced himself with Hindu names and claimed to know the heads of many popular mutts.