Three tricksters who duped an ex army personnel of Rs 70 lakh by promising him a deal of 'rice puller' with NASA have been arrested by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police, a senior official said today.
The arrested accused have been identified as Tapeshwar Tyagi, 53, who posed as coordinator of a France-based company, and Deepak Tiwari, 36, a graphic designer who contacted ex Subedar Major Balraj Singh Parmar who was conned, said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner (Crime).
The third arrested accused, 65-year-old Naresh Kumar Gandhi, posed as an expert of verifying authenticity of 'rice puller'.
The trio were arrested by the Crime Branch from different parts of the city, after a team of Nasik police approached Delhi police for identification and arrest of the cheats on a complaint by Parmar.
Deepak had contacted Parmar offering him to buy 'rice puller' available with one of his acquaintance at very low cost. The complainant was told that 'rice puller' is an alloy of copper and iridium which is used by NASA in space satellites for generating energy, he said.
Parmar was lured by the promise that 'rice puller' was worth hundreds of crores of rupees. Tyagi chipped in as a representative of a France-based company claiming that it was ready to buy 'rice puller' for supplying to NASA, the officer said.
Parmar was taken to Nasik where Gandhi was introduced to him as an expert to certify whether 'rice puller' was original or fake. Some other persons also joined the trio and Parmar was given some faded yellow coloured metal by them after paying Rs 70 lakh, he said.
Later the so called 'rice puller' was found to be an ordinary metal piece leading Parmar to lodge a complaint at Upnagar police station in Nasik.
A case under section 420/34 was registered against unknown cheats.
Crime Branch recovered fake identity cards of the France- based company, as well as a so called test kit comprising a black box, sprays, x-ray plates, compass, mirrors, from the arrested accused.
The tricksters during interrogation admitted to have cheated 8-10 other persons through the same modus operandi, he said.
The gang leader Tyagi who had suffered losses in his computer manufacturing and software business which he ran from his office in Narayana, had stumbled upon the idea of sale and purchase of 'rice puller' while surfing some technology website, added the officer.
