Man held for duping Ludhiana’s jewellery store owner of gold worth Rs 6 crore

PTI

New Delhi, July 18

A 42-year-old man was arrested for allegedly duping a Punjab-based jeweller of 10 kg of gold worth Rs 6 crore, police said on Tuesday.

The arrested accused has been identified as Sushil Kumar, a resident of Ludhiana in Punjab, they said.

Two people allegedly posed as GST inspectors and took away a consignment of gold being taken from Delhi to the victim's store in Ludhiana, the police said.

A case was registered at Rani Bagh police station on Saturday on the complaint of Ravinder Kumar. In his complaint, the victim said he purchases gold from Delhi to make jewellery and sells those in the local markets of Ludhiana, a senior officer said.

On July 10, he sent his driver Balraj and employee Rajan Bawa with the requisite GST bills to take the delivery of a consignment from Karol Bagh here. They took the delivery around 9 pm and left for Ludhiana in their car, the officer said.

Around 9.30 pm, when they reached near Haryana Matri Bhawan, their vehicle was stopped by another car. Two unidentified people got down from the car and introduced themselves as "inspectors" Satbir Singh and Ravi Kumar from the "central GST department", the officer said.

They "inspectors" told the pair that they had information about unauthorised gold in the car. They also asked the pair to produce the bill for the gold.

When Bawa called Ravinder Kumar, the victim informed one of the "inspectors" that the bills were with him, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Harendra Singh said.

The two "inspectors" then seized the gold and told driver Balraj to meet them at their office, Singh said.

The complainant reached Delhi the following day and visited the office where he found that the two "inspectors" who had seized the gold were impersonators, the police said.

His employee Bawa also cut off contact from July 11, they added.

During the investigation, the police scanned around 100 CCTV cameras and found that the car used to commit the crime was going towards Punjab. Bawa was also in contact with someone who was waiting at a dhaba in Murthal, Sonipat, at the time of the incident, Singh said.

Thereafter, the man sitting at the dhaba headed towards Shahbad near Ambala where he de-boarded from his vehicle. On the basis of technical surveillance, he was identified as Sushil Kumar and arrested from Punjab, Singh said.

Sushil Kumar disclosed that he was a regular at the GST office and had gained some knowledge of its workings. Having known Bawa for two years, he planned the heist with him, the officer said.

Bawa knew where the complainant got his supply of gold from and leaked the information to Sushil Kumar, the police said.

Sushil Kumar is an accused in 18 criminal cases, including cheating and impersonation. He hired a personal security officer after he was fired at, they said.

The police recovered eight gold plates worth around Rs 4.8 crore from his home. Efforts are underway to nab Bawa and the other accused, the police added.  

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