Trio dupes woman of Rs 2L offering fake gold chain

Chennai

To convince the victim, P Lakshmi (35) of Somasundaram Street, the gang visited her shop adjacent to her house for over a week on the pretext of buying cool drinks during the work break and gave her two real gold beads on August 6 and 8 claiming to have found them at the worksite and asked her to check if it is gold.

Lakshmi gave them to a nearby jewellery showroom and found out that the beads were gold, each weighing less than a gram, after which the gang called her over and told her that they got a big gold chain with a lot of such beads attached to it.

“The gang allegedly told her that the chain would be worth Rs 50 lakh and offered to give it to her for Rs 4 lakh as they are in dire need of money,” said police. Lakshmi, who was excited to get Rs 50 lakh worth gold for Rs 4 lakh, negotiated with them that she has got only Rs 2 lakh in cash and closed the deal by giving them another one-sovereign gold chain.

On Saturday, the woman went to the same jewellery shop and was shocked to find out that the chain was made of steel with a covering in gold colour.

Based on her complaint, Ayanavaram police registered a case and launched a hunt for the suspects. CCTV footage from the neighbourhood in which the images of the suspects have been recorded have been collected and circulated to other police stations from the control room.