Faridabad (Haryana): Police claimed to have busted a gang of racketeers involved in selling fake gold coins. The gang members belonged to the same family and they were duping people in different parts of the country for the last 20 years. A probe into the matter has begun and five members of the gang besides the goldsmith are now in police custody.
Police have recovered fake gold coins weighing more than 17 kg (17.700kg), including cash, from their possession. Based on the confessional statement of the arrested accused, police rounded up the goldsmith Arpit, who was involved in manufacturing sub-standard gold coins. After the production of the arrested persons at a local court, two accused Panna Lal and his son Dharmendra were then forwarded to police remand for five days. While the remaining accused were sent to jail.
Besides, the recovery of fake gold coins, the machine for minting these coins, 21 mobile phones, and Rs 51 lakh cash were also seized from their possession. The Crime Branch of the Faridabad police arrested all the six accused, including the goldsmith, for selling fake gold coins in the name of real. Haryana police spokesman Sube Singh said the arrested goldsmith's name was Arpit and he is a resident of Agra.
The other five accused, who were earlier arrested by the Crime Branch, belonged to the same family. The arrested persons have been identified as Panna Lal, his wife Rama, and sons Dharmendra, Rajan, and Nitin. In the first incident, the accused had targeted Dr Nishant, a resident of Green Field Colony in the Faridabad district of Haryana. On June 28 this year, Dr Nishant, in a complaint to the police stated that on February 8, a person, along with his family consulted him for treatment. During the treatment, the fraudsters' families said that they needed money and gold coins, which they had in their possession, could be exchanged for money.
The gold coins belonged to their ancestors' property and they were recovered while digging a field. The fraudsters were successful in luring the doctor to purchase some gold coins. In the initial dealing, the gold coins were found genuine. But again after 20 days, the cheats approached the doctor for buying the coins and this time around they were successful in selling fake coins worth Rs 40 lakh to him (Dr Nishant).
Similarly, the fraudsters targeted Dr Nikhil, a resident of Sector 31 in Faridabad. The first victim Nishant approached the police at Surajkund to file the complaint while the second victim Nikhil lodged a complaint with the Faridabad Sector 31 police station.
The FIRs were registered in different police stations against the fraudsters under various Sections of the IPC. Police commissioner Vikas Kumar Arora said that after scanning the CCTV footage the accused persons were nabbed. Thereafter they were produced before the court. The arrested persons Panna Lal and his son were sent to police remand for five days while other accused were sent to jail.
