KOCHI: A Jharkhand native was arrested in Angamaly on Wednesday for allegedly attempting to dupe a jewellery with imitation gold ornaments. The Angamaly police have arrested Pankaj Sagar, 22, a resident of Udyan Singh Nagar. According to the police, the accused came to Chungathu Jewellery in the guise of buying two bangles on Monday. Later, he demanded the salesman to exchange two other bangles in his possession with new ones. After growing suspicious about the ornaments produced by the accused, the shop staff passed on the information to the police.
“The bangles he produced weighed 5 sovereigns each. However, it contained only 2 gm gold and the rest was 24 gm imitation gold. For the jewellery staff, it was a tough job to ascertain whether the gold produced by him was fake or genuine. A detailed investigation will be conducted in order to ascertain whether any other persons are also involved in this fraud,” said an officer. Later, the sleuths recovered 140 gm imitation gold from the room of the lodge where the accused had been staying. “If he exchanged this ornaments with the original ones, it would have cost more than Rs 4 lakh,” said officers. The accused was produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, which remanded him to judicial custody.