Bhutia dressed as a monk. A Telegraph picture

Gangtok, Jan. 3: A 28-year-old impersonating as a monk has been arrested on charges of cheating.

Tshering Namgyal Bhutia, who claimed to have been ordained in Dharamshala, often went around asking for donations in the name of “his monastery” and, given an opportunity, stole jewellery from unsuspecting devotees.

Bhutia is currently under police custody at Gangtok Sadar police station.

On December 29, Chung Chung Bhutia, a housewife from Panihouse here, had called Bhutia to do a puja at her house to ward off bad luck. On his arrival Bhutia asked Chung Chung to dump all her gold ornaments weighing around 3.5 tolas (a little less than 35gm) in a vessel. He asked her to open it only the next day. When the vessel was opened on December 30, the ornaments were missing. The family then lodged a complaint with the Sadar police.

On December 31, plainclothesmen spotted Bhutia trying to sell off the jewellery at a shop on Tibet Road. He was arrested on the spot.

“The jewellery shops had been provided with Bhutia’s description. Earlier too he was caught once, but we had to let him off as there were no complaints,” said a police officer of the Sadar police station.

Bhutia’s area of operation, according to the police, covered Sikkim and north Bengal. An advertisement for a puja in a Namchi monastery gave Bhutia, a resident of 10th Mile, Kalimpong, the idea to impersonate as a monk of that monastery.