2 held for fraud in Jammu, Rs 1 crore seized

Two persons were today arrested by the crime branch for for cheating people by selling some items claiming them to be metals allegedly used for space research here and seized Rs 1 crore from them, police said.
Venkata Krishna Modegula of Padmarao Nagar, Secunderabad and Sandeep Singh Rana of Paryot, Doda, were arrested for claiming to have sold metals like rice puller, copper, irrdium, trathgola used purportedly for space research but was a hoax, an official spokesman said.
A complaint has been lodged by a man named Raj Kumar Gupta who alleged that he was duped by the gang on the pretext of selling a precious item for Rs 8 crore.

A special team has been constituted by SSP Crime Branch Jammu, Mubassir Latifi to investigate the matter, the spokesman said.
Modegula, the main kingpin of the gang, had advanced allurements to the complainant on the pretext of being a qualified scientist affiliated to NASA and DRDO and took Rs 3 crore from him by issuing fake certificates for the authenticity
of the precious metal, he said.
An amount of Rs 1.5 lakh and one licenced pistol was also recovered from another accused Sandeep Rana of Doda who is also an active and important member of this gang, he added.
Modegula applied for a bail to the Chief Judicial Magistrate which was rejected, following which he broke and surrendered Rs 1 crore to the crime branch, Jammu, the spokesman said, adding, investigation is underway and more arrests are likely to take place.