The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Salem News : Trader duped of Rs. 10 lakhs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 02, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Salem

Trader duped of Rs. 10 lakhs

By Our Special Correspondent

SALEM, JAN. 1. Five persons posing as officials from the departments of Customs and Central Excise and Police took away Rs. 5 lakhs and gold jewels estimated at Rs. 5 lakhs from a trader's house here in the early hours of Saturday.

The police said that the gang members, one posing as a police sub-inspector and the rest as Customs officials arrived in a car at the house of K.V. Gopinath, (40), a silver anklet and gold merchant, on Kannara Street in Sevvapet at 5.30 a.m.

They informed Mr. Gopinath that the officials had come to verify his business documents and a few charges that were levelled against him.

As soon as they entered the house, the gang members asked the inmates to bring cash, jewels and documents that were kept in the house for verification. Confused, the inmates handed them over.

After stuffing them in a box, they left the house in a hurry asking Mr. Gopinath to submit necessary applications at the office later in the day to take back the "seized'' materials.

The "raid" was over in just 15 minutes. Sensing something amiss, Mr. Gopinath contacted the officials concerned who said the departments had not conducted any such raid. He immediately preferred a complaint with the Sevvapet police. Senior police officials including the Assistant Commissioner, Chandrasekaran, visited the house and held an enquiry. The police have formed special parties to nab the culprits.

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