TIRUPPUR: Five people were arrested for allegedly posing as Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials and conducting a fake raid at a businessman’s office and looting Rs 1.69 crore on Monday.
The accused have been identified as Vijay Karthick (37), Narendra Nath (45), Rajasekar (39), Loganathan (41), Gopinath (46).
According to police sources, Anguraj (52), a resident of Kumaran Nagar, has been running a cotton yarn business for the past several years along with his friend Durai alias Ammavasai. They received a phone call from a private company in Hyderabad claiming that they were planning to execute a construction project in Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Erode and solicited investments from Anguraj and Durai and assured them double the amount within a short time.
Officials added that on January, 30, the duo believed the Hyderabad-based companies and managed to arrange Rs 1.69 crore with the help of their friends and family and sent a photograph of the money to the representatives of the company.
A group of five claiming to be ED officials went to Anguraj’s office and seized the Rs 1.69 crore, retrieved the CCTV camera footage and left the spot asking them to present themselves at the ED office. Later, the duo found that they were cheated and lodged a complaint at the Tiruppur City police department, where four special teams were formed and they managed to trace the culprits.
Officials further said, the accused first claimed themselves as the representatives of the Hyderabad-based company and convinced the duo to arrange the money and when they found out that they arranged the money, they disguised as ED officials and conducted the raid and looted the money. Rs 88 lakh, two luxury cars worth Rs 20 lakh and two mobile phones worth Rs 1.62 lakh were seized from the accused.