Frauds lure CA with “magical mud” from Bangladesh, dupe him of ₹30L

Police in Kandivali are searching for two men who scammed a 60-year-old chartered accountant out of ₹30 lakh by selling him mud from Bangladesh claiming it would produce gold when heated. The victim realised he had been duped when the mud did not turn into gold.

MUMBAI: Police in Kandivali are on the look-out for two men who allegedly duped Anil Mohanlal Drone, a 60-year-old chartered accountant of ₹30 lakh. The accused lured Drone into buying mud from Bangladesh, claiming it would produce gold when heated.

HT Image

According to Kandivali police, Drone, a resident of Shanti Vihar building on SV Road in Kandivali west, met a man named Mohan Chaudhury in May, when he was returning from Jaipur via train. Chaudhary told Drone that he was a municipal corporator in Haryana and the two exchanged numbers.

In October, Chaudhary called Drone and told him that he was in town and wanted to meet his family, comprising his wife, son and daughter-in-law. Following Drone’s invitation, he and his brother Kishan Chaudhary visited their residence with five kilograms of ghee and rice as gifts. Thereafter, Chaudhary visited Drone’s house often.

On November 2, Chaudhary visited the chartered accountant with 15 kgs of ghee and cottage cheese. He told Drone he knew a widow whose husband was in the army and had got several kilos of mud from Bangladesh which produced gold when heated. He said that since the widow had been cheated by her relatives, she did not trust anyone and had sent a sample with Chaudhary to look for buyers.

When Chaudhary heated the mud in Drone’s house, it produced gold which they authenticated (23.6 carats) from a branded jewellery showroom. Chaudhary asked Drone to buy the entire gunny bag that the widow had for ₹2.30 crore. But he refused, saying that he did not have so much money.

On November 3, Chaudhary urged Drone to invest at least ₹30 lakh on the mud, which agreed to, even though it meant liquidating his life savings. The next day, at 3.30pm, Drone handed the money over to an unidentified man who claimed to be the widow’s brother and took the gunny bag from him. At 7.15pm, when he and his family members heated the mud, they were shocked to see that it did not turn into gold. They then called up Chaudhary, but his phone was switched off.

Realising that he had been duped, Drone then approached the Kandivali police and reported the incident. The police registered an FIR against the Chaudhary brothers and an unidentified man based on his complaint.

“We are tracing the three accused through their mobile numbers as well as CCTV recordings of the area where the financial transaction was done,” said an officer from the Kandivali police station.