Rs 1 cr recovered from gang of cheaters

Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 24

The Crime Branch, Jammu, has recovered more than Rs 1 crore from a gang of criminals involved in cheating the public by selling a “heavenly” object (rice puller/copper iridium/trathgola), purportedly used for space research, but was in reality a hoax.

Two fraudsters Venkata Krishna Modegula, resident of Padmarao Nagar, Secunderabad, and Sandeep Singh Rana, resident of Paryot, Doda, have been arrested from Secunderabad, Telangana, and Jammu, respectively, by the Crime Branch, Jammu.

These revelations were made by IGP, Crime, Munir Ahmed Khan. He said on a complaint lodged by Raj Kumar Gupta of Gandhi Nagar, Jammu, who was duped by the gang, which sold him the “precious item” for a whooping amount of Rs 8 crore, SSP, Crime Branch, Jammu, Mubassir Latifi constituted a special team to investigate the unique case in which the gang of criminals had duped not only the complainant, but also many other people.

The team, headed by Inspector Parvez Sajjad, laid a trap and apprehended the kingpin, Venkata Krishna Modegula, from Secundrabad, who had allured the complainant by pretending to be a qualified scientist having affiliation with the NASA and DRDO. He also “certified” the preciousness of the metal and in turn took a huge amount of Rs 3 crore from the complainant.

An amount of Rs 1.5 lakh and a licensed pistol (purchased from the looted amount) were also recovered from another accused Sandeep Rana.

After his arrest, Venkata Krishna Madegula applied for bail before the court of Ld Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jammu, but the same was rejected.

After having exhausted all the available remedies, the accused finally surrendered an amount of Rs 1 crore to the Crime Branch, Jammu.

Investigation of the case is still in progress and more arrests and recovery of the remaining amount is expected in the coming days.