A bullion trader was allegedly duped of Rs 1.6 crore in Ahmedabad with fake currency notes carrying pictures of Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) in Ahmedabad recovered 18 of the 21 gold biscuits exchanged during the transaction, officials said on Wednesday. The gold biscuits that have been recovered are worth Rs 1,36,25,000.
The FIR in the fraud case was filed on September 26 after bullion trader Mehul Amulakh Thakkar (40) filed a complaint at Navrangpura police station.
The incident took place on September 23 when a friend of Thakkar informed him that a client wanted to purchase 2.1 kg of gold. After Thakkar agreed, the transaction took place at Kantilal Madanlal Angadia firm on CG Road where two unidentified accused said they were paying Thakkar Rs 1,60,12,500 in cash in exchange for 2.1 kg gold. They allegedly gave Thakkar’s employee fake notes of Rs 500 in 26 bundles of Rs 5 lakh each, wrapped in plastic.
The two men then left the premises, saying they were going to get the remaining amount of Rs 30 lakh.
Meanwhile, when the employee of the bullion trader counted the money already handed to him, he allegedly realised that these were fake notes. He rushed out to search for the two men but they were gone with the gold.
The Crime Branch had recovered 18 of the 21 gold biscuits and found that the accused had scammed others using the same modus operandi earlier too.
The accused had the fake notes printed by giving the printer the fake excuse that they were for a film shoot, said PI DB Patel of the Crime Branch.
Police arrested three accused, including Deepak Rameshsinh Rajput, 32, of Ahmedabad. He is said to be the mastermind who posed as the buyer. Narendra alias Nandu alias Nandan Chhotelal Jadav (36), of Madhya Pradesh, who was riding the getaway bike; and Kalpesh Piyush Mehta (45), who designed and printed the fake notes, were also arrested.
Meanwhile, four accused are still on the run. These are Bhupesh Bhim Surti of Mumbai who posed as the owner of the angadia firm; Vijendra Ghanshyam Bhattar of Rajasthan who acted as the father of the main accused; Arvind Damor of Rajasthan who sold the three gold biscuits that could not be recovered; and Prabhu who aided Arvind in selling the gold biscuits.
Deepak Rameshsinh Rajput, the main accused in this case, had been previously booked in five cases. These have been lodged at Vadaj and Paldi police stations in Ahmedabad, Makarpura in Vadodara, Chhota Udepur and Kushalgadh in Rajasthan. There is at least one more case against Narendra Jadav at Paldi police station in Ahmedabad.