The Central Crime Branch of the Salem City Police arrested three persons on charges of cheating and recovered Rs. 45,000, a car and six mobile phones from them here on Monday.
Karthick of Solampallam had advertised in the social media that he would assist the needy in getting loans from banks. In March this year, he received a phone call from a person saying that he was ready to offer loan at a very low interest rate. Karthick’s friend Kannan was in need of money and the two met Rameshprabakar (48) of Tiruvannamalai at a hotel in Tirupati.
Nandu alias Premkumar alias Sheikh (39) of Ukkadam in Coimbatore, Vijayananad (39) of Bengaluru and driver Sazath Ahmed (45) of Katpadi were also present in the hotel room. The gang assured to arrange Rs. 10 crore provided they were given Rs. 20 lakh as commission. Karthick and Kannan accepted the deal. On May 13, 2015, the two were shown currency note bundles kept inside a car. The two handed over Rs. 20 lakh commission to the gang. Stating that they needed to sign the documents to collect the money, the gang took them in a car along the Salem — Bengaluru national highway. Halfway on the highway, the gang pushed the two out of the car and fled. Based on a complaint, the police registered a case under Sections 120 (b), 420 and 109 of IPC.
The special team arrested the three while Nandu is still at large.
The police recovered some cash, a car and six mobile phones from them. The currency bundles that were recovered had only one original currency note of Rs. 500 denomination on top of each bundle while the rest were plain paper notes.
