CHENNAI: A 51-year-old man was arrested by the city police for allegedly cheating three persons by promising to return double the money they invested in ‘rice pulling’ vessel.
A special team, led by North Beach station crime inspector P Palani, arrested Ravindra Kumar of Sowcarpet who has been absconding for several months. There have been three complaints against Ravindra in the North Beach station so far.
Police said Ravindra got acquainted with Kannan, a co-producer in the Tamil cinema industry, two years ago. He had asked Kannan to invest `25 lakh in the ‘rice pulling’ vessel promising him double the returns once the vessel was sold. Believing him, Kannan gave him `25 lakh, but never got any money in return. “After threatening to file a police complaint, Ravindra returned the money. However, a few months later, he managed to convince Kannan into giving him `19 lakh on the same condition,” said an investigation officer.
After he failed to get the money, Kannan filed a complaint at the North Beach station.
During probe, officials found that Ravindra had two associates, Rahul and Basha, who assisted him in tracing well-to-do persons to be conned.
The modus operandi, the police said, was similar. “They would claim that the rice-puller is an ancient artefact made of copper and iridium, which has the capacity to draw rice grains. They even claim that this was an expensive metal used in satellites and nuclear weapons, for which NASA and ISRO would spend crores of rupees,” said the officer.
To lend more credibility to the fraudulent scheme, the victims are often shown bank documents of international buyers. Further probe is on to trace the money taken from the victims and a search launched for Basha and Rahul.