Mangalore: Bihar man 'shines' at duping people with fake gold, caught

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Aug 14: A man from Bihar has been arrested at Belvai, Moodbidri for cheating people by offering to polish their gold ornaments and stealthily pocketing them.

As soon as the fraud came to light, the residents of Marpadi caught him and handed him over to police.

The accused has been identified as Anand. His accomplice Mahesh managed to escape. Both are aged around 25 years.

Anand and Mahesh used to go house to house and steal gold ornaments on the pretext of polishing them. One Tuesday, they went to Marpadi resident Chennappa's house and rubbed a copper vessel with a chemical powder and made it look as good as new. As there were more men in the house, they did not ask for gold and proceeded to another house.

In the next house, there were no men, and only a young woman and her aunt were present. They first took gold toe rings from them and got them to shine. The acccused then offered to do the same with more ornaments. Impressed with their work, the women gave them a gold chain weighing two sovereigns. Anand and Mahesh dipped the gold chain in water, wrapped it in paper and gave it back to the women, asking them to open it after half an hour.

However, the women grew suspicious and opened the packet right away. They found a broken fake chain in place of their gold. When questioned, Anand and Mahesh ran away in different directions.

As soon as the news spread, neighbours Praveen Shetty, Chennappa, Jaya Acharya, Idinabba and others chased the accused. Anand in a bid to escape caught a bus going to Belvai. The locals who came to know this stopped the bus and caught hold of him and handed him over to the police.

The stolen gold chain was recovered from Anand and handed over to the women.

Anand and Mahesh are from Bihar and have been staying in a rented house in Udupi.