Trio held in ‘rice-pulling’ scam

The Navi Mumbai police has arrested a three-member gang who cheated some businessmen of Rs 1 crore, claiming to be selling a ‘rice-puller’ metal which it said was to be used in satellites and nuclear weapons and that NASA and ISRO would buy it for thousands of crores of rupees.

The gang said the ‘rice puller’ had fallen to earth during lightning. It said the metal was to be used in satellites and nuclear weapons and would fetch a great price from NASA and ISRO.

They were arrested from a house they were renting in Andheri, after the police received a tip-off. They also had on them fake ID cards showing they were scientists belonging to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Elaborating on the crime, DCP crime S Sawant, said, “We received three complaints from the residents and we started investigation in the matter. We arrested them after we got a tip off. In their statement they told us they were unemployed and when they were searching on the Internet they came to know about a rice-puller scam that was carried out earlier. They then decided to do the same here.

“They used to behave like rich people in public and attract businessmen. They used to tell their customers that they had an object that had fallen to earth during a lightning strike and it could pull objects like rice towards itself. They priced the object at Rs 10 to 20 but told customers that when they sold it to NASA it would fetch crores of rupees.”

“Once a customer showed interest, the object would be shown to him and a fraudulent NASA scientist would then turn up to check the authenticity of the object in front of the buyer and give the metal his approval.

The customer would take the metal home after paying up, while the gang would flee the place once the deal was done. Three people from Navi Mumbai have been duped in this scam and they have been cheated of a total of around Rs 1 crore,” he further added.