4 held for cheating techie in the name of ‘customs gold’

MADURAI: Four persons of a family were booked for allegedly cheating a software engineer of Rs 10 lakh by promising to get him seized gold from the customs department that are auctioned at discounted prices.
A Karthick, 22, of Muniyappan Koil Street, Chinnapudhur, Salem had given Rs 10 lakh in cash in the beginning of the year to B Senthil Kumar, 40, of Viraganur here. Police sources said that Kumar had got in touch with the techie claiming that he could get gold at slashed prices through the auction done by the customs department.
Customs officials who seize gold from smugglers and after necessary procedures, file a petition in court for disposal of gold. The seized gold is then transferred to a public sector bank where the latter would put the gold on auction under the customs-seized category, according to police officials.
However, Kumar neither got the techie the gold nor returned the money. When Karthick approached him to return the money, he allegedly threatened him.
Based on a complaint and direction from the district magistrate, Silaiman police booked Kumar, his wife, Manonmani, his father, Boominathan and a relative, Rajendran. A search in on to secure the suspects.