Youth held for selling gold-painted jewellery

CHENNAI: A 26-year-old man who conned a businessman by selling him gold-painted jewels for Rs 15 lakh in Tambaram was arrested by the police on Saturday.

Ramajeyam of Chennai is a vegetable vendor in the Koyambedu market. For the past few months, Rahul would visit his shop often to buy vegetables and became friendly with Ramajeyam.

A few weeks ago, he told Ramajeyam that he has many antique jewels, which he wants to sell at a low price. He also showed a few gold chains to Ramajeyam as a sample. Police said that he had checked the chains and found it was pure gold.

Later, when Ramajeyam said that he wanted to buy them for Rs 20 lakh, Rahul told him to visit him in a private lodge in Tambaram as it was risky to bring them to Koyambedu. A few days ago, Ramajeyam went to the lodge and gave Rahul, Rs 15 lakh and received a bag from him.

Police said that Rahul had advised him not to open the bag anywhere until he reached home. After reaching home, when he checked the bag, Ramajeyam was shocked to see gold painted jewellery. Soon he rushed back to the lodge in Tambaram but couldn’t find Rahul.

He filed a complaint with the Tambaram police. With the help of mobile phone signals, cops arrested Rahul in Karnataka, and brought him to Tambaram.

During investigation, they found Rahul was arrested with 10 others in 2016 in Tiruchy for cheating the public using gold-painted jewellery.

A few months ago, he was released on bail. Rahul was remanded in judicial custody and further investigation is on.