Pune: A 27-year-old accountant working with a leading automotive company in Pimpri Chinchwad fell prey to a ‘cheap gold bait’ and lost Rs10 lakh to a gang of conmen on Tuesday.
Senior police inspector Hrishikesh Ghadge of Ravet police said the complainant stays in the Parvati area and is originally from Raichur district in Karnataka. “The trio told him they were from Karnataka and possessed gold and silver coins. The men told him they wanted to sell them as they needed money for their sister’s marriage,” Ghadge said. The officer said the accountant went home and checked the purity of the gold again, only to find that the beads were made of brass. He then came to the police station and lodged a complaint,” the officer said.
The accountant exhausted his and his father’s savings and borrowed money from relatives and friends to buy half a kilogram of gold at a cheaper rate. He handed over the money to the gang near Mukai Chowk in Ravet. After reaching home, when he checked the gold beads, he found that what he believed to be gold was actually brass. The accountant then approached the Ravet police and lodged a complaint. In July this year, when he was coming out of a bank near his house, three people, including a woman, approached him. “He tried to call the accused, but their cellphone numbers were switched off. The Ravet police are searching for the three-member gang.