Bengaluru: The City Crime Branch arrested three fraudsters for allegedly trying to sell ‘red mercury’, which is supposedly used in nuclear bombs.
The arrested were identified as Manigandan, Mohammed Haneef, both residents of Hosur, and Nagaraja from Hoskote.
According to the CCB, the trio claimed that the Red Mercury (Hg) was illegally procured from LTTE outfit, but after the death of Prabhakaran, it was brought to India by some former LTTE cadres. They convinced the police, who approached them in the guise of potential buyers, that this material is in demand and fetched good money in the global market. The CCB sleuths told the trio that they had international links in business and they were interested in buying the red liquid metal.
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Believing them to be genuine customers, the trio even showed power-point presentations with tests and scan reports of some US-based lab of the red mercury material. The trio made negotiations with the “buyers” demanding Rs. 150 crore for eight pounds of red mercury.
The conmen then offered to give a sample and took Rs. 5 lakh as advance. The police said the trio were real estate agents. They told the police that the mastermind behind this was Jay Singh, also a resident of Hosur, who is absconding.
A case of cheating has been registered in Upparpet police station.
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