Disco Baba’s alchemy lured victims with ‘buried gold’

October 04, 2016 01:39 am | Updated November 01, 2016 10:52 pm IST - HYDERABAD:

When Anwar Khan alias ‘Disco Baba’ was arrested about a week ago, the impression that gained ground based on his name was that he would trick people through his dance. In fact, at the insistence of some media personnel at a press conference post his arrest, the conman even danced to a song when asked about his peculiar name.

But dancing is not even remotely close to what he allegedly did to scam people of lakhs of rupees. Disco Baba’s latest victim was an NRI who gave him a staggering Rs. 35 lakh to find hidden treasure (which would mostly be gold) under his house. The ‘gold’ indeed did turn up from under his house, but it was not long before the victim realised that he had been duped. Anwar was arrested along with about 15 more conmen more than a week ago during a raid by the the south zone police.

So how exactly did Anwar Khan, a resident of Tappachabutra, convince such victims that he would indeed find gold beneath their homes? The answer to that lay in brass bars with gold painting. And, to convince his victims that those bars were not just gold, but long lost treasures, he would get the bars inscribed with Urdu signs stating that they belonged to the Asaf Jahi dynasty or the Qutb Shahi dynasty.

Fake inscriptions

“Disco Baba would also imprint them with random dates like 1710, to make the bars look authentic. Gold normally glitters, but the bars he would get painted would be a little dull. On this, he would convince the victims that these bars were really very old,” said V. Satyanarayana, Deputy Commissioner of Police, south zone.

Mr. Satyanarayana said that Anwar claimed he could find gold buried at the time when Aurangzeb invaded Hyderabad and brought down the Qutb Shahi dynasty. So why the name Disco Baba? That is because Anwar fashions himself after yesteryear actor Mithun Chakraborty and wears similar clothes, besides dancing to songs from actor’s movies.

This act came in handy at weddings to attract the attention of wealthy people, whom he would later cheat.

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