Mysuru: An elderly woman was relieved of her mangalsutra worth about Rs. 2 lakh by two women who managed to con her this morning after accusing her of theft. Under the guise of taking her to the Police Station, the two women first took the elderly lady in an auto and later in a car and removed the gold chain after sprinkling some powder to make the victim lose her senses.

The incident that occurred in a crowded area of Nanjumalige has shocked the residents and the Police have launched a manhunt to arrest the criminals.

The victim has been identified as 62-year-old Bhagyamma, wife of Ganesh, a resident of Medarkeri near Nanjumalige and she lost her 70-gram mangalsutra. In her statement to the Police, Bhagyamma said that she had purchased the gold chain in December 2016.

Bhagyamma told the Police that she followed a daily routine of getting out of the house at 8 am and head towards Nanjumalige to buy vegetables and milk. This morning too she went on a stroll when a well-dressed woman approached her near Nanjumalige. “She placed her hands on my shoulders and enquired about my health. I thought that she was known to me and I would have forgotten her owing to my age. We exchanged courtesies and walked together for some distance,” Bhagyamma told the Police.

After walking a few steps, another well-dressed woman, from the opposite direction, approached Bhagyamma and the woman who was walking by her side claimed that she had lost her purse. “The other woman accused me of stealing the purse. Hearing the accusations, the woman who was walking by my side removed her mangalsutra and made a promise that she had not stolen the purse,” Bhagyamma stated. The two women then told Bhagyamma to remove her mangalsutra likewise and make the promise.

When Bhagyamma refused to remove her chain, the women told her that in that case they need to go to the Police Station to recover the purse. Bhagyamma told the Police that both the women were behaving aggressively. Trusting their words, Bhagyamma agreed to this and got into an autorickshaw and asked the driver to head towards Lakshmipuram Police Station.

As the autorickshaw neared Sri Nadabrahma Sangeetha Sabha, the two women got down from the rickshaw and got into an Indica car with registration number “KA-53” that was parked by the side of the road. Bhagyamma told the Police that inside the car, one of the women sprinkled some powder on her face and touched her forehead. “I lost my senses and it took some time for me to regain composure. I was then dropped at some distance from my house and the women told me that they had tied my mangalsutra to my saree pallu. I realised later that the women had taken away my expensive mangalsutra and had instead tied some stones to my saree,” Bhagyamma stated in her complaint.

A shell-shocked Bhagyamma returned to her house at around 10 am and narrated the incident to her family members who alerted the Police. Suspecting the involvement of an organised gang, the Police are on the lookout for the Indica car and the autorickshaw. They are also examining CCTV footages to trace the vehicles. Police said that somebody who knew Bhagyamma’s routine would have committed the crime.