Duo poses as Income Tax official, auditor; cons Tiruchy jeweller of Rs 40 lakh

CHENNAI: The city police arrested two men on Friday for duping a Tiruchy-based jeweller of Rs 40 lakh, promising to get them gold from banks at a lesser price, by posing as an income tax official and auditor.

The duo even roamed in an SUV with 'G' stickers and bogus VIP car passes with the Tamil Nadu government emblem to make the act believable.

According to the complainant, M Praveen (38), he is one of the directors of the Tiruchy-based Mangal and Mangal jewellery firm. In 2021, when he visited the GST office, he was approached by Gurusampath Kumar, one of the accused, who introduced himself as an auditor and acquainted him with Lakshminarayanan of Puducherry, another accused, who claimed to be an Income Tax official.

Gurusampath Kumar further spun stories that he had earlier worked in a bank and that he could also arrange for gold from banks at cheaper rates apart from helping with GST-related issues.

Trusting Gurusampath, Praveen discussed this with other partners in the firm and in August 2021, they paid Rs 40 lakh to the accused at their office in Chennai. However, after getting the money, the accused did not keep their word, and despite repeated requests from Praveen, they did not repay the money either.

Last month, when Praveen contacted one of the accused over the phone, he allegedly issued threats, after which Praveen filed a complaint with the Elephant Gate police station as the cash was handed over in Chennai.

After investigations, a police team arrested the accused, G Gurusampath Kumar (42) of Anna Nagar, Chennai and S Lakshminarayanan (46) of Puducherry. Police also seized the SUV from them.

Further investigations are underway to find if they cheated others using a similar modus operandi.