A group of three persons who attempted to dupe a person by offering to sell a fake gem which they claimed was a precious “nagarathnam” were arrested here on Wednesday.
Claiming that they were in possession of a precious “nagarathnam”, the trio, Murugan (45), Karuppiah (40) and Manikandan (30) had, after a tough bargain, fixed the price at Rs. 300 crore to Louis Vincent (30) of Rapoosal village in the district. Loius Vincent had paid an advance of Rs. 2,000 last week to have a look at it. However, suspecting foul play, Mr. Vincent filed a complaint with the Organised Crime Intelligence Unit. A team of police personnel from Tiruchi, led by P.A. Ganesan, rushed to Vaithukovil near Udaiyalipatti near here and arrested the trio.
Investigation revealed that the trio acted as agents of Thangamani, a temple priest near Gandarvakottai, who is at large.
The OCIU police later handed over the trio to Keeranur police who have registered under Section 420 IPC (cheating) and 506 (i) IPC (Criminal intimidation).
The Keeranur police produced the trio before the Judicial Magistrate who remanded them to 15 days’ judicial custody.
