‘Rice puller’ scam busted in Malad
The Mumbai Police crime branch unearthed a ‘rice puller’ racket, in which a Malad-based man was duped of Rs 10 lakh on the pretext of investing in machines that test the quality of copper iridium, a metal so strongly magnetic that it can attract grains of rice from several inches away. Police arrested seven men on Saturday, who are suspected of cheating scores of investors using the same modus operandi. In earlier similar scams, the crime branch had arrested 9 people and unearthed at least five fake companies, who are suspected of cheating investors of Rs 8 crore.
Police said the accused kept a close watch on people who would buy antique pieces in bulk and would eventually be in need of a rice puller machine to authenticate their purchase. According to this plan, one of the accused approached the complainant and said that they were looking for investors, who could pool in money for the business ventures and ‘introduce’ them to the buyer and seller, telling them that copper iridium objects are worth crores and used in top secret projects by government research agencies. Moreover, the accused had presented forged documents in the name of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, supposedly certifying their company as authorised to deal in copper iridium.
The complainant fell for the con and paid a sum of Rs 10 lakh to the accused, who had promised to introduce him to the buyer. However, in a sudden change of plan, the accused demanded an extra cash of Rs 5 lakh as an investment, which is when the complainant smelt a rat. Out of suspicion, the complainant roped in sleuths of crime branch, who then laid a trap near Madh in Malad. A police officer said, the accused had shown a demonstration of the copper iridium objects attracting rice grains by creating a fake magnetic field to sell their lie. “The accused would mix iron particles with grains of rice used for the demonstration while a pot with a magnet hidden inside it would be placed near it so that the rice particles would be pulled towards it,” the officer said.