Fake gold: Police unearth ₹51 lakh from gang’s house

A week after Faridabad police arrested five members of a family who allegedly duped over 200 people of crores of rupees by selling them fake gold coins, police recovered ₹51 lakh from their house and arrested a goldsmith--who used to make brass coins despite knowing that they would be used for duping people--from Agra on Wednesday night

A week after Faridabad police arrested five members of a family who allegedly duped over 200 people of crores of rupees by selling them fake gold coins, police recovered ₹51 lakh from their house and arrested a goldsmith--who used to make brass coins despite knowing that they would be used for duping people--from Agra on Wednesday night.

HT Image

Police said the family members packed money in polythene bags and wrapped them in bubble wraps to ensure they are safely ensconced in pillar walls, below bedroom floorings, in the toilet flush and in the garden of the house.

Narender Kadian, deputy commissioner of police (crime), Faridabad, said, “The kingpin, Pyare Lal, identified eight places in the house, to keep the money. He borrowed the idea of packing money and keeping them safely by watching a video on a social media platform. Whenever the family was in need of money, Lal used to take out one packet and never disclosed to his sons where he had hidden the money,” said Kadian.

Police said the family often invited relatives and neighbours and threw lavish parties in their house. They used to celebrate birthdays and festivals like a royal family. The neighbours were under the impression that the family was into diamond trading, said police.

Since January, the gang spent over ₹1 crore, which police said is unaccounted money. “Lal spent over ₹10 lakh for buying expensive single malt liquor, his wife invested in ornaments while one of their sons bought apparels. A majority of the money was spent on the treatment of Lal’s sister, who died of cancer, and two sons, who have some illness,” said Kadian.

Police identified the goldsmith as Arpit Shrivastava of Sikandra in Agra, who made brass coins, applied polish coating on them to make them look like real gold coins and supplied it to the suspects for duping people.

Narender Sharma, sub-inspector (NIT crime unit), said it was difficult to get details about the gang’s operations from the suspects and that it took them four days to find out about the goldsmith, after which a team was dispatched to arrest him.

“We investigated all five separately and cross examined them several times. Only the father knew the goldsmith. For the last 20 years, Lal was buying fake coins from the same goldsmith. Shrivastav’s father died in 2012 and the gang members were arrested and jailed for a few years in Bhopal. On their release, Lal approached Shrivastav and narrated his business plan. He got Shrivastav to make fake coins for him,” said Sharma.

Police said Lal paid Shrivastav ₹35,000 for 1,000 coins and extra ₹2 lakh as incentive every time they were successful in duping a person. The six suspects were produced before a court on Thursday and sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

On July 15, HT reported the arrest of five members of a family, who allegedly duped over 200 people in different states by selling them fake gold coins, gold bricks, ornaments, and utensils after claiming that these were “Mughal-era artifacts” that were unearthed in Gujarat and Rajasthan during site excavations.

Following the HT report, five doctors approached Faridabad police and multiple cases were registered against the family at different police stations.

Apart from Pyare Lal, the other members in his family who were arrested were his wife Rama Devi (48), and sons Dharmender Singh (30), Rajan Kumar (25) and Nitin Kumar Lal (22). Police recovered 70 mobile phones, 200 gold coins, over 1,000 coins made of brass, and ornaments.