Cheats sell fake gold bricks

3 held for making Chennai man shell out Rs 14 lakh

Three men were arrested for cheating people of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of providing gold bricks at a low price in south Delhi, police said.

Harun, 26, Unnas Khan, 30 and Shahabuddin, 53, who hail from Rajasthan, were arrested at Mahipalpur flyover on Friday, said deputy commissioner of police (south) Chhaya Sharma. 

They were arrested after Naveen Daga from Chennai filed a complaint with Vasant Kunj South police station. 

In his complaint the businessman said he received a phone call in December 2008 where the caller said he had a gold brick. Since he was in need of money, he wanted to sell the brick at a very cheap rate.

When the bussinessman received repeated calls he became inclined to buy the gold brick and came to Delhi in February 2009 and met Pappu and two of his accomplices at Vasant Kunj.  

Sample for test

They gave him three small pieces of gold and claimed that it were pieces from the gold brick and asked him to get them tested.  

He got the samples tested at Chennai. The pieces had 20 carat gold so he agreed to purchase the gold brick at Rs 7 lakh per brick. Daga then came to Delhi in the same month with Rs 14 lakh and met Pappu and his associates and purchased two ‘gold’ bricks.  

Later, he realised that the bricks were made of copper. When Daga tried to contact Pappu and his associates but failed. 

Since he had no choice the businessman went back to Chennai. 

In January this year, he received a similar phone call inviting him to buy a gold brick. “Daga identified Pappu’s voice. Since he had identified Pappu, he said he will purchase the gold slab,” said Sharma.  

He came to Delhi and narrated the incident to the police. Pappu had told him to come near Mahipalpur flyover at 9.30 pm on Friday.

 “We laid a trap and arrested all the three accused persons,” said Sharma.