Bengaluru men with fake VIP links befriended women, stole jewellery; arrested

Bengaluru police arrested two men accused of befriending women and stealing their gold ornaments. The breakthrough linked them to three city cases and led to recovery worth Rs 19 lakh.The men lured the women with fake VIP links, while offering to solve their issues.Two men in Bengaluru turned claims of political and celebrity connections into a way to befriend women, offer to “solve” their problems and then steal their gold ornaments, police said on Friday.The accused, identified as Santhosh SL, 34, and Punit Kumar, 25, were arrested in connection with three theft cases. Police said they recovered 130 grams of gold ornaments, a gold ingot and a mobile phone, with the total value of the recovered property estimated at Rs 19 lakh.The case surfaced after a woman approached the police with a complaint on July 12.According to her complaint, a man approached her on July 11 and struck up a conversation by claiming to know a Zilla Panchayat president and a well-known film producer. He allegedly offered to help her resolve a land-related issue and asked her to meet him at a lodge near Yeshwanthpur Railway Station. During the meeting, the woman removed her gold chain and placed it in her handbag. Police said the accused allegedly took advantage of the situation, stole the chain and fled.Investigators subsequently gathered information from multiple sources and, acting on credible leads, arrested Santhosh and Punit near the KSRTC Bus Station in Majestic on August 9. During questioning, the two allegedly admitted to stealing the woman's gold chain and disclosed their involvement in similar thefts, police said. Investigators were also allegedly told that some of the stolen gold had been kept at a jewellery shop in Davanagere and at a lodge in Sumanahalli, where the accused had been staying.Based on the information provided during the investigation, police recovered a gold ingot from the jewellery shop and a gold chain from the lodge between August 10 and 14.The accused were produced before a court on August 17 and remanded to judicial custody.Police said the arrests not only led to the recovery of stolen property but also helped link the two men to three similar theft cases reported in different parts of Bengaluru.- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Sep 4, 2026 14:34 IST