Pune Crime | Curious Case Of Dhayari Jeweller Vishnu Dahiwal: Dupes Nearly 2,000 In Multi-Crore Bhishi Scheme Fraud, Then Staged Fake Robbery With Toy Gun To Mislead Customers

A house help who mortgaged her gold for a loan, a teacher who saved every rupee for a secure future, and a mother who invested her life’s savings for her daughter’s wedding — hundreds of hushed dreams in Pune’s Dhayari area are now shattered.

Their hard-earned money, entrusted to a jeweller they believed in, has vanished. Vishnu Dahiwal, owner of Shree Jewellers, has absconded after allegedly cheating over 2,000 investors, leaving families devastated, their trust broken, and their hopes destroyed. For them, this is far more than financial loss — it’s the collapse of a lifetime of sacrifice.

Residents of Dhyari are facing a tough time as the owner of Shree Jewellers, Vishnu Sakharam Dahiwal, cheated investors by not returning their investments running into crores of rupees, along with interest. The investors claim that under the Bhisi investment schemes, they would invest money every month, and since May 24, the shop owner has been on the run.

Fake robbery on May 21

The investors are having a tough time because the police are yet to register an FIR, and they are questioning police negligence, as the authorities had already registered a case where Dahiwal had staged a fake robbery on May 21. The investors question why the police released him, knowing he had staged a fake robbery, and why they did not verify his actions.

Fraud worth ₹5 crore?

Kishore Kopokle, a social activist, said, "Dahiwal has committed a fraud of more than five crores, and on the other hand, the police have shown complete negligence. They had arrested him earlier, but why they released him is still a question. The owner staged a fake robbery and later even got released, and now he's absconding, and people are left to cry as they have lost their life savings."

Archana Ramdas, a resident of Dhyari, said, “I invested Rs one lakh by depositing 10k every month, and initially, he returned my money, so I was confident to invest more. When I did that, he took our money. The strange part is the police are not cooperating and are not filing an FIR. We want our money back. I’m a teacher, and this was my savings, which he took away. He has cheated more than two thousand people. We will now go to the higher authorities.”

'My mother has been depressed'

Karuna Wanjale, another resident of Dhyari, said, “My mother, she’s an old lady, and she used to invest money at Shree Jewellers. We lost around five lakhs. My mother, on May 22, visited the shop asking for money. He told us that the shop was robbed and he would give us our money back. But since that day, my mother has been depressed. After coming home, I found out about the fake robbery he had staged, so we called him, but he blocked our numbers. And on May 24, he ran away. The shop is closed, and we want the police to catch him and get our money back.”

Anjali Thakur, a house help and a resident of Dhayari Phata, said, “We were in dire need of money, so we took a loan of Rs one lakh from him by putting a mortgage of three tolas of gold. I had paid all the EMI instalments, and only 30 thousand rupees were left to pay, but I lost my gold. My in-laws and family members are now blaming me; my husband is also frustrated. God knows what will happen.”

Shri Kalmani, a resident of Nanded City, said, “I’m here to support my sister. She just fainted now. She invested Rs 7.7 lakhs for her daughter’s wedding. The wedding is due, and she also gave him six tolas of gold on May 20 to make bangles. Dahiwal told us to come after two days to get the bangles. We went, and he said the bangles are not ready yet. So we insisted on the money, and he gave us a cheque of Rs five lakhs, and it bounced when we went to the bank.”

Earlier arrested by cops

Spokesperson of NCP (Ajit Pawar Faction), Rahul Pokale, said, “This is a big fraud case. Almost two thousand people in this area are affected by this cheating. And most of these women are low-wage workers, and the police have not yet registered the case. The shop owner staged a fake robbery at his shop as he was in debt. He allegedly asked his relative to commit a fake robbery at his jewellery shop so that people who gave him loans would stop calling him to return their money. The police have even arrested three persons in the case, including a family member of the jewellery shop owner, for faking the robbery. But I don’t understand, and even the people are asking, why did the police let them go after they found he had faked it?”

Senior police inspector Atul Bhos of Nanded City Police Station said, “Earlier, Dahiwal lodged a false complaint at the Nanded Police Station that gold ornaments worth Rs 20 lakh were robbed from his shop. The probe confirmed that a toy gun was used for the commission of the crime. Further, based on clues obtained from the analysis of multiple videos captured by CCTV cameras around the crime scene and other locations, we identified the three suspects allegedly involved in the robbery."

He added, "They were arrested along with Dahiwal, but because it was a fake robbery, we had to release them. Court permission was needed to arrest him for faking a robbery case. We have recorded the complaints of 35 people so far, and the process of an FIR has been initiated. Our team is tracing him and will arrest him soon.”