Retired woman defrauded of Rs 75,000 by Friend

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

A 60-year-old retired woman, Mangala Narayan Lajurkar, was defrauded of Rs 75,000 by her friend, Kiran Kundan Gaikwad, who misused Mangala’s ‘PhonePe’ password. The incident, which came to light on December 20, took place in Cidco Nagar-2, Tisgaon.

Mangala, who lives with her nephew while her son and daughter-in-law reside in Mumbai, regularly interacted with Kiran, who was a close neighbour. On December 16, Mangala suggested they both join a women’s forum. When Kiran mentioned she lacked the funds, Mangala trusted her friend and allowed her to use her phone to transfer Rs 1,000 for the forum. Along with the transfer, Mangala shared her ‘PhonePe’ password with Kiran. However, Kiran only sent money to the forum and kept the password for future use. On December 18, she stole Mangala’s phone when the opportunity arose.

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Suspicion arise after Daughter-in-Law's call

On December 20, Mangala bought a new phone and inserted her old SIM card. Soon after, she received a call from her daughter-in-law in Mumbai, asking why large sums of money were withdrawn from her account. Mangala, who believed her phone was stolen, grew suspicious. Her daughter-in-law checked the account and discovered unauthorized withdrawals. It was found that on December 18, Rs 1 was first transferred, followed by Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000 the next day. Mangala immediately filed a fraud complaint against Kiran Gaikwad at the MIDC Waluj Police Station.