Durg (Chattisgarh): Two fraudsters have been arrested in the Durg district of Chattisgarh for allegedly duping 6000 women of about Rs 2 crore in the name of making pearl necklaces, police said on Tuesday. The two accused identified as Sanu Kumar and Sanjay Kumar were arrested respectively from Varanasi and Patna on Monday, police said adding that the former had earlier served a prison sentence in Bihar in a cheating case.
According to police, the two interstate fraudsters have duped women in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. They further revealed that the fraudsters obtained a trade license from the Durg Municipal Corporation using fake documents following which they started the scheme of making pearl necklaces to dupe unsuspecting women.
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Revealing the modus operandi of the accused, police said that the duo had bought pearls worth Rs 40 lakhs from Sadar Bazar in Delhi and gave 5 kg pearls to women after taking Rs 2500 advance from them for an order of making pearl necklaces. Initially, after the completion of the order, women were given Rs 3500. But when several women showed interest in the fraudulent scheme the two accused fled with about Rs 2 crore which they had collected from them.
The matter came to the cops' notice after a section of the duped women lodged a complaint of fraud against the duo. The police swung into action and arrested the two accused one of whom had initially fled to Nepal from Bihar.
Speaking to reporters, Durg SP Abhishek Pallav said that the accused gave over 25,000 kg of pearls to the women and cheated them of about Rs 2 crore. " The fraudsters also hired 30 employees," he added.
The SP said that the accused fled to their villages after duping the women and splurged the amount on buying an expensive SUV and building a two-storied house. He also said that the two accused brought pigeons worth Rs 1.5 lakh to "cleanse them from sins."
