Navi Mumbai: 6 con woman of Rs 30 lakh with money-spinning ‘rice puller’

NAVI MUMBAI: A cheating case has been filed against six people for duping a woman from Kalamboli of Rs 29.50 lakh after convincing her son to invest the money in a ‘rice puller’ machine. The six accused had told Ranjan Tike (60) that the machine was used in aeronautics engineering and had assured her of huge Rs 100 crore as maturity amount in April 2015.

The accused neither gave her any interest nor returned her due to which her son, Pravin (39), died of a heart attack in August 2015.

The key accused—Ganesh Patil from Kolhapur, Brijesh Yadav from Pune and K Menon from Mulund—had befriended Pravin. In April 2014, the trio asked Pravin to invest Rs 22 lakh in the ‘rice puller’ machine which they claimed would increase money if it were kept at home. Pravin took money from his parents, including his retired father’s savings, His mother even borrowed Rs 10 lakh for the investment.

The accused visited their house and showed them a machine, claiming it had magical powers. Pravin transferred the money to the bank account of the accused’s firm, National Aeronautics and Aero Space Research Centre.

Later, when Pravin learnt that he was cheated, he demanded a refund, but the trio was absconding. Three years later after his death, Ranjana took up a legal battle to recover her money. Senior inspector Satish Gaikwad said the accused are untraceable. “Still, we will use technical expertise to find them,” he said. —George Mendonca