Mumbai: 7 dupe man of Rs 10 lakh in ''rice puller'' fraud, held

Seven people were arrested for allegedly duping a Malad resident in the metropolis of Rs 10 lakh in a 'rice puller' scam that involved selling copper-iridium 'testing' devices, police said on Sunday.

Gangs carrying out such scams try to convince people to invest in machines that test copper-iridium, an alloy which they claim is highly valuable for its magnetic power, and go about demonstrating this quality by "pulling rice", usually a trick involving mixing the grains with iron particles.

Police said one of the accused approached the complainant to invest in a scheme involving use of copper iridium, which the former claimed was worth several crore rupees and was needed in "top secret research" being carried out by government agencies.

"The accused even showed fake defence ministry documents to convince him that their firm was authorised to deal in copper iridium and was safe for investment. The complainant first gave Rs 10 lakh and then found something fishy when the accused asked for another Rs 5 lakh. He then approached police," the official said.

A Crime Branch team laid a trap in Madh area of Malad on Saturday and arrested Sobitkumar Bhubaneswar Das (48), Manish Naresh Mittal (38), Sanjay Ramsevak Choudhary (54), Uttam Kachare Madavi (38), Nijar Ahmed Kunjuttur Abdul Rehman (43), Sudhir Shrikrushna Thakur (32), Nilesh Sadanand Dalavi (49).