After MIG club chief’s arrest, cops dig deeper

MUMBAI: A day after arresting the chairman of the Bandrabased MIG cricket club, Pravin Barve, 63, the Rajasthan police suspect the involvement of more influential

MUMBAI: A day after arresting the chairman of the Bandrabased MIG cricket club, Pravin Barve, 63, the Rajasthan police suspect the involvement of more influential people from the city in a multi-crore inter-state cheating racket. These people in powerful position allegedly used their position to win the trust of victims and duped them. The racket has been operating for at least three years, according to a victim.

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Besides Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad, the group also has an operating centre in Mumbai, the police said.

Explaining the modus operandi, a police official said the gang, spread over various states, would dupe gullible people by promising them to sell a ‘radioactive material’ which, after scientific tests, can fetch Rs6,000 crore in the international market. Victims fell prey to the ploy and invested Rs15 to Rs25 lakh so that the material can be tested, and once authenticated it will be sold, the officer said. But the promised material never arrived.

The gang of conmen operated in three teams: The first team claimed to have the material, the other targeted potential customers and the third team with coordinators like Barve used its influence to get investment. One of the accused who posed as a scientist to test the material is identified as Sunil Rajendran, 48. He told victims he was from United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Based on a complaint by three persons from Surat, the Lawan police in Rajasthan registered an FIR under sections of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy on July 28. Eleven people were arrested, including Barve, and sent to police custody on Wednesday for five days by a magistrate’s court in Dausa district, Rajasthan.

According to the FIR, Barve swindled victims of Rs16 lakh and stashed this amount into the bank accounts of his accomplices. A source said that the Rajasthan police were aware of the activities of the gang but did not take action as no one was coming forward to register the FIR.