HYDERABAD: Sleuths of the Hyderabad Central Crime Station (CCS) have nabbed four persons hailing from Medipally and Moula Ali for cheating a realtor of Rs 3 crore with a fraudulent scheme commonly known as the “rice pulling” scam.
The accused convinced their victim that they possessed a unique object linked to the success of India’s Chandrayaan mission. The accused were identified as N Vijay Kumar, R Sai Bharadwaj, M Santhosh and U Surender. The two members of the gang first came in contact with the 31-year-old victim at Country Club in 2021. They established a connection with the victim and gradually cultivated a friendship.
The accused then concocted an elaborate narrative surrounding the supposed rice-pulling object, convincing the realtor of its extraordinary value and technological applications. They claimed that this substance fell to Earth during lightning strikes and possessed the unique ability to attract objects towards it due to isotope radiations.
After convincing their victim of the uniqueness of the object, they promised huge returns on investment and asserted that both NASA and ISRO were eager to acquire the rice puller for crores. They convinced the victim that the recent Chandrayaan mission’s success was solely due to the utilisation of a similar rice-pulling object.
Two more members of the gang then entered the picture, posing as the owners of the rice puller. They agreed to sell it to the victim for Rs 3 crore. The transactions occurred in 2021-22. Whenever the victim pressed them to produce the rice puller, the gang would make excuses, claiming that it was located in Bhubaneswar as part of another mission and would take time to reach Hyderabad. Hoping for huge returns, the victim kept his “good fortune” a secret, until he finally realised that he was a victim of a scam. He then lodged a complaint with the CCS, Hyderabad.