Gurugram, Apr 16 (PTI) Four people part of an interstate gold coin fraud were arrested with more than Rs 2 crore in cash and 678 gm of gold in their possession, police said on Thursday.
One of the four was Solanki Prabhubhai Gulshanbhai, alias Kalpesh, alias Ravi, a resident of Vadodara in Gujarat, and also the alleged leader of the gang.
The other three were identified as Pankaj Sharma, a resident of Nihal Vihar, Delhi, Manish Kamlesh Shah, a resident of Kareli Bagh district in Vadodara, and Ishwar Marwadi, a resident of Ramdev Nagar district in Vadodara, Gujarat.
Prabhubhai, the alleged kingpin, and Pankaj Sharma were arrested in Gurugram, while Manish Shah and Ishwar Marwadi were arrested in Gujarat on Wednesday, the police said. According to the police, Prabhubhai has been involved in fraud for the past 25 years, with most of his criminal activity occurring in Mumbai and Gujarat.
Police said that with the proceeds of the crimes, he bought Hotel PM in Karjan Lakodra on the Delhi-Mumbai Road. “About 15 years ago, he defrauded Bollywood actor Aditya Pancholi of Rs 25 lakh and Salman Khan’s father Salim Khan of Rs 20 lakh. With the defrauded money, Prabhubhai married four times and even made a Gujarati film titled ‘Love You’,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Hitesh Yadav.
Prabhubhai wanted to establish his political dominance by securing a ticket for his wife, Parvati Solanki, in the Gujarat municipal councilor election, the officer said.
Yadav said the gang usually targeted educated people. Most of the gang members are illiterate and would disguise themselves as poor laborers, carrying 5-6 real gold and silver coins.
They would show them to wealthy people, saying they found these while digging. According to the police, the members of the gang would produce real gold coins when they would be asked for authenticity.
Once the gold was confirmed as real, and its value pegged at Rs 25 to Rs 30 lakh per kg, the prospective buyer would be reeled in. Once the deal was finalised, the members of the gang would pass on gold plated copper for gold coins and decamp with the money. A hunt for them in the NCR was launched on April 1, when a Gurugram-based exporter lodged a complaint at Sushant Lok Police Station reporting a similar fraud.
The exporter alleged that on February 13 an unknown person duped him by promising to sell him gold and silver coins at a cheap price. On March 2, he said, the man took around Rs 2.49 crore in cash and around 500 grams of gold from his house in Sushant Lok on the pretext of selling a large quantity of gold coins, but gave him fake coins in return, according to the police. While investigating, a team of crime unit, Sector 43, arrested four people, including the ringleader. The police found Prabhubhai to have two fraud cases filed against him in Maharashtra and seven cases in Gujarat. “We will soon arrest two female members of the gang, who are currently lodged in Kota jail,” the DCP said. PTI COR VN VN
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