The Tambaram police arrested a fraudster from Delhi and his friend in the city.

The main suspect, Venkataraghavan, 42, was arrested by the Meenambakkam police a few months ago after he allegedly cheated several car buyers by offering sedans at cheaper rates, the police said. He has seven more criminal cases against him in south Chennai. After coming out on bail, he changed his name to Srikrishna and shifted to Delhi. He continued to operate from Delhi by engaging his associates here.

He and Rajalakshmi, 26, of Chitlapakkam, lured several persons over phone and in person, claiming that jewellers in the city were willing to give jewellery at half price as the stock they procured for Akshaya Tritiya remained unsold.

The suspect contacted a jeweller in Coimbatore and offered that he would get gold jewellery at cheaper rates from a jeweller in T. Nagar, the police said. On suspicion, the Coimbatore jeweller phoned the manager of the T. Nagar outlet to verify the claim.

Sensing that something was wrong, the outlet manager, Prabakaran, called up the suspect posing as a buyer. He was asked to deposit ₹8 lakh at a Tambaram outlet of the jewellery group he was working with.

After he deposited the money, the photo of the challan was sent through WhatsApp to the suspect. Ms. Rajalakshmi went to the outlet and demanded the jewellery. The Tambaram police arrested her and later nabbed Venkataraghavan in Chromepet after he arrived from New Delhi.