Hyderabad, Aug 10 (PTI) Four persons were arrested for allegedly cheating people to the tune of around Rs one crore by promising them of locating hidden treasure buried underground in residential premises, police said on Monday.
Police teams busted the racket involving cheating of innocent persons on the false pretext of locating hidden treasure buried beneath houses and apprehended four accused persons, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Taskforce) KS Rao said in a release.
Police seized two four-wheelers, one auto-rickshaw, two motorcycles, four cell phones, 25 fake gold coins and six kgs coal among other items from the possession of the accused.
On the modus operandi of the prime accused, police said he allegedly hatched a plan to cheat gullible persons by claiming that he had special knowledge and the ability to locate hidden treasure buried beneath their houses. Accordingly, the prime accused contacted his friends and all of them agreed to join him in the illegal activity with an intention to earn easy money, police said.
The accused persons thereafter approached innocent and gullible people and collected money from them.
After digging the ground, they planted a sack containing coal along with duplicate gold-coated coins. Further, the accused persons absconded from the place, stating that it would take some time to convert the coal into gold.
In this regard, a case was registered at Rajendra Nagar Police Station, and was investigated upon.
As many as 11 people have been cheated in different areas to the tune of around Rs one crore, police said.
Police further said it has come to their notice that, in recent times, some fraudsters have been moving around streets, villages, and towns claiming that hidden/underground treasures are available in certain places and are cheating the gullible people after collecting money from them by making false promises. PTI VVK VVK KH
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