Father, son arrested for duping man of ₹1.43 crore

A father and son have been arrested for allegedly cheating a man of ₹1.43 crore on the pretext of selling him a ‘Rice Puller’, the police said on Tuesday.

The accused allegedly sold the non-existent product to the victim saying it was a “rare piece of copper struck by thunderbolt in the hills of Uttarakhand giving it the power to pull rice”. They also told the victim that it was being used by NASA and the DRDO in advanced space research.

“Rice Puller is a non-existent product. The cheats coated a copper plate/ utensil with liquid magnet. Then, they used a mixture of boiled rice and iron filings to fool the victims by ‘pulling’ the rice towards the magnet-coated copper utensil/ plate,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar.

Complainant Narender, who deals in garment exports business, approached the Crime Branch saying he was cheated of ₹1.43 crore by Virender Mohan Brar, his son and others.

Mr. Narender alleged that he had came in contact with a person a few years ago who had told him about ‘huge profits’ in Rice Puller testing.

Virender, who posed as the managing director of a company, told the victim that he was in the process of testing the Rice Puller and would sell it to NASA for ₹37,500 crore if he was successful.

Virender assured Mr. Narender saying the testing would be carried out by the “DRDO scientists who work for him”, the police said. The accused further told the victim that he would receive a lump sum if he invested money at the testing stage.

To gain Mr. Narender’s confidence, Virender told him that he would be paid ₹10 crore on the spot as token money if the testing was “okay”.

The victim signed a memorandum of understanding with Virender after this and paid ₹87.2 lakh for the “special anti-radiation suits” to be worn by scientists during testing, the fee charged by the scientists, purchase of chemicals required for testing, etc.

The testing was scheduled to take place in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur but the accused cancelled it saying the place was not conducive.

They kept delaying the testing repeatedly, the police said. Meanwhile, Virender’s accomplices started pressuring Mr. Narender to either finalise or let go of the deal. They took him to another company’s office in East of Kailash and promised that he would not be cheated this time, they added.

The complainant entered into another MoU with the new company and paid ₹51.1 lakh for testing, scheduled to take place in Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamsala this time.

However, the accused cited unclear skies and postponed the test.

The victim later discovered that the “DRDO scientists” worked for Virender for ₹20,000 per month and that all the persons who had taken money from him were members of his gang, the police said.

Following this, Virender and his son Nitin Mohan alias Baba were arrested.

Seized items

During the investigation, the RP copper plate, the “anti-radiation suits” and anti-radiation chemical stickers were seized from the accused, the police said.