Daijiworld Media Network - Beltangady (SP)

Beltangady, Jul 25: A gang of youngsters hailing from north India was taken into custody by the local police on Friday July 24 from near Aladangady. The gang members, who were trying to convince the gullible villagers that they would bring back the lost glitter and lustre of their old gold ornaments, were handed over by the locals to the police.

Many villagers were earlier duped by such gangs. After the gold ornaments were returned to families after they were washed in chemicals, many people had noted with horror that their ornaments had lost considerable weight. By the time they realized that the gold polishers had cheated them, the miscreants normally vanished from there.

The gang which approached the wife of Sheshappa Nalike and his daughter, who were alone at home at that time at Ungilabail Aladangady on Friday, earned their trust through their communication skills, and convinced them to hand over their ornaments for polishing. The gang dipped the ornaments given by them in a solution, and left to some neigbouring houses for business. Sheshappa's son, who came to his house during this period, wanted to check what was going on, and removed ornaments kept in the solution. He found to the horror of family members that the golden chain had turned into several bits.

He immediately informed the neighbours and began searching for the gang. Three youngsters of the gang were caught by the locals and handed to the police. The police are now trying to find out the number of persons duped by this gang, considering that last year too, a gang of such fraudsters had been beaten up and handed over to police by villagers after finding that they were robbing gold through the above method.