According to the police, the two women-Maya Parekh alias Madhu Trivedi (37) and her daughter Priya (19)-approached Dinesh Sarvaiyya (68), a Dahisar-based dealer of antiques, on January 25 and claimed to have connections in the international market of antiques.

The two women, the police said, allegedly told Sarvaiyya that the antiques that he had could fetch him Rs 40 lakh in the international market.

“The two women even bought some goods worth Rs 5,000 and paid him on the spot to gain his trust,” said DCP Shivaji Bodhke. A few days later, they again approached Sarvaiyya and coaxed him into handing over antiques worth approximately Rs 17 lakh to them and gave him a cheque for Rs 5 lakh as advance payment, the police said.

When the cheque was dishonoured on February 2, Sarvaiyya went to the bank to enquire about it and was told that the signature on the cheque was forged and the account belonged to someone else.

“Coincidentally, Maya had also come to the bank to inform them that she has misplaced some of her cheques and that they could be misused by someone else. When Sarvaiyya confronted her, she denied having taken anything from him and even threatened to file a molestation complaint against him,” said Senior Police Inspector Ramesh Keni of the Dahisar police station. Realising that he had been duped, Sarvaiyya approached the police and filed a case of cheating against the two women.

“During investigation, we detected the whereabouts of the two women and arrested them from a chawl in Dahisar. We recovered antiques worth Rs 5 lakh from their residence and the rest of the valuables from a flat in Kandivali. We also discovered that the two women have also duped many people by posting advertisements in Gujarati newspapers offering visas to the US and UK for Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000,” Bodhke said.

Sarvaiyya said, “These antiques had been passed on from generation to generation in his family. I thought I am getting old and my children are not really keen about the business of antiques and this would be a good deal for me. The two women had also told me that they were in touch with foreign delegations who visit India for purchasing antiques.”

The antiques included rare ‘rudrakshas’, conches, ‘shiv lingams’ made of mercury, ‘shaligrams’ (a rare kind of black stone), an ancient walking stick, rare corals and a 200-year-old statue of Radha and Krishna.