4-member gang held for duping finance firms

Attingal: The rural district police here on Thursday arrested four members of a gang, which was engaged in duping finance firms by pledging fake gold ornaments.
The police identified the accused as Manikandan, 52, of Kuttoor in Thrissur; Hanis, 37, of Papala near Kilimanoor; and Irshad, 26, and Majeed, 36, hailing from Malappuram. The officers have also seized the fake gold ornaments from them. Their arrests were recorded at Pallickal police station.
According to station house officer inspector D Midhun of Pallickal police station, it was the arrest of members of another gang engaged in similar crimes that led to the arrest of the four men.
Police had registered a case and launched a probe on April 17 after receiving a complaint from Muthoot Finance Private Limited’s Pallickal branch office. On April 22, the police arrested a five-member-gang. During their interrogation, the gang members revealed that they used to procure the fake ornaments for duping finance firms from Manikandan.
“Manikandan is an expert in making gold-plated ornaments that could pass off as gold ornaments even before experts in the field. There were many occasions in which the gang successfully pledged their fake gold ornaments at finance firms that used modern equipment to test the ornaments,” the inspector said. It turned out that Manikandan’s gang had allegedly committed more crimes in the capital district than the other gang.
As per the complaints received so far, the first gang had allegedly swindled around Rs 6 lakh from as many as three finance firms. But, Manikandan’s gang were revealed to have committed the fraud at around 10 firms here.
The police had collected surveillance camera visuals from various finance firms under the Attingal police sub-division as part of the investigation and they have managed to identify visuals of the gang members visiting around 10 firms. This include Muthoot Fincorp at Pallickal, Muthoot Finance Ltd, Mahalekshmi financers at Pallickal, Agilesh Finance Ltd at Pakalkuri and Amma Finance in Parippally.
The police also said that Manikandan was an accused in over 60 similar cases recorded at various police stations in Kozhikode, Kannur and Malappuram districts.
The arrested were produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody.