Murdered Pune man’s 3.5-kg gold shirt goes missing

Days after ‘Gold Man’ Datta Phuge (48) was allegedly bludgeoned to death in front of his son by 12 persons, it has emerged that the deceased’s 3.5kg gold shirt, which catapulted him into the limelight and made him an overnight sensation, has gone missing. Sources close to the family said that family members and people who had invested in Mr Phuge’s schemes were clueless about the gold shirt. While Mr Phuge’s family claimed that he had returned the shirt to the jeweller as he was facing financial problems, the jeweller refuted the same and said that Mr Phuge never returned the gold shirt.

Mr Phuge became famous all over the world in 2012 after he got the first ever gold shirt weighing 3.5-kg made. At the time, he even held a presser to announce the same. Thereafter however, his life changed as everyone started keeping an eye on his activities. While the gold shirt got Mr Phuge a pride of place in both Limca and Guinness world record books, he faced an income tax inquiry.

On July 14, Mr Phuge was allegedly killed in front of his son in Pune. The Pune police arrested nine men within 24 hours of the murder and the court remanded all the accused to police custody till July 21. The police said that one of the motives behind the murder could have been that Mr Phuge had duped several people in a Ponzi chit fund scheme.

Before he got his gold shirt made, Mr Phuge owned a chit fund company called Vakratunda in which several people invested money. This way, he got hold of so much money that he started working as a moneylender. He even started another company for the moneylending business and gave it his son’s name i.e. Shubham Finance. At some point down the road, he got involved in some illegal business where he lost most of his money. “Later, there was a situation where Mr Phuge told his family that he would have to mortgage his gold shirt to the jeweller as he did not have any money to pay others. According to the jeweller, however, Mr Phuge never came to him to pawn his shirt.

Tejpal Ranka, owner of Ranka jewellers, said, “It’s misleading information that the gold shirt was pawned with us. We do not carry out such business, and do not have such dealings with anybody. We gave him the shirt in 2012. He never came back with the shirt.”

A source said that investors and family members were still looking for Mr Phuge’s shirt. “His son Shubham told the police and investors that his father had mortgaged his shirt to the same jeweller last year when they started facing financial troubles,’ said the source .

On July 14, 12 people allegedly bludgeoned Mr Phuge to death, in front of his son. The police is searching for other accused in the case.