The R.S. Puram police on Sunday arrested a man from Virudhunagar district on charges of cheating three persons from the city of ₹ 7.5 lakh.
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The police said P. Ashok Kumar (34) of Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district followed the modus operandi of borrowing money from gold dealers on the pretext of closing gold loans he had taken from banks and then selling the gold to the same lenders for repayment.
According to the police, the accused first contacted a 34-year-old man from Othakkalmandapam, who buys and sells old gold jewellery, on June 15 this year. The accused told him that he had pledged 585 grams of jewellery at R.S. Puram branch of State Bank of India and wanted ₹ 3 lakh more to close the loan. The accused convinced the man that he would sell the jewellery to him to repay the ₹ 3 lakh after closing the loan. However, the accused absconded after getting the cash.
The police said the accused cheated two more persons of ₹ 3.50 lakh and ₹ 1 lakh in the same way. The three men lodged complaints with the R.S. Puram police based on which separate cases were registered.
A team led by inspector Parimaladevi arrested Kumar, a B.Tech graduate and former employee of an IT firm, on Sunday. He was remanded in judicial custody.