A 68-year-old woman became a victim of a scam after being lured with the promise of receiving ₹32,000 per year under the old-age pension scheme. The fraudster reportedly took her around the city, convinced her to hand over her gold jewellery, and later abandoned her at Katwa Sub-divisional Hospital, telling her husband to wait elsewhere. When she didn’t return, her husband filed a complaint at the Katwa police station. Police later traced her and safely reunited the elderly woman with her husband.
Regarding the incident, Katwa SDPO Kashinath Mistry said, "Though the elderly woman was rescued, the miscreant fled with her jewelry. An investigation has started based on the complaint. Search for the miscreant is ongoing."
Manohar Sar, a resident of Birampur village in Ketugram, left home with his wife, Rakshamayi Sarkar, on Tuesday morning to go to his elder son's house in Burdwan. They got off at Katwa station around 7:30 AM after taking the down Azimganj train. They were waiting on platform number 6 to catch the 8:50 AM local train to Burdwan. There, an unknown youth approached them. He informed the elderly couple that people over 60 years would receive Rs 32,000 annually as an old-age pension. He said they would have to go with him and apply to receive the pension.
Allegedly, the scamster then brought the elderly couple out of the station. He made the old man sit at the Katwa bus stand and took the elderly woman away in a toto, saying he was taking her for a form fill-up. After that, when the old man saw his wife not returning for a long time, he informed the Katwa police station. Under the leadership of SDPO Kashinath Mistry, the police divided into several teams and started searching. A search operation was also conducted through CCTV cameras. Around 1 PM, the Katwa hospital police camp informed the police station that an elderly woman was sitting there crying. Police rescued her and brought her to the police station.
Rakshamayi said, "In the name of getting me a pension, that youth took me in a toto and roamed me around various places in the city. He even asked me to call my son. Then he said I had to remove my gold chain from my neck, gold bangles from my hands, earrings and all, because my weight would be checked. I also removed all jewelry as per that boy's instruction and gave it to him. He tied all of it in a handkerchief. Then he left me at the hospital and fled."
