The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Conmen held, fake goods seized

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 20, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Conmen held, fake goods seized

Staff Reporter

Posing as air passengers the gang sold spurious goods

CHENNAI: The city police arrested eight persons and seized fake consumer goods from them near Burma Bazaar on Saturday. The vehicles used to display the goods were impounded.

The items seized included two fake Pentax DL 2000 cameras, Ray Ban sunglasses and Rado watches, an auto rickshaw and a motorcycle.

North Beach police said the accused devised an elaborate method to cheat the gullible. The tricksters divided themselves into three teams. One would buy inferior quality items from Burma Bazaar while another would solicit customers. A gang member would tell a gullible customer that he was late for a Singapore flight and had to dispose of his "foreign" goods. He would then quote a low price and settle for a bargain price saying he had to support his family members.

North Beach police also seized printed State Bank of India challan books for demand drafts payable at the Meenambakkam branch of the bank and the seal used by the Customs Department at the airport. The gang would write down the details and value of the items on fake challans and add the Customs Department "seal" as proof that the customer was being sold original goods at a cheaper price.

A police patrol vehicle spotted the conmen on Saturday and when they closed in, the group tried to escape in an auto rickshaw and motorcycle.

The police seized the goods and the vehicles valued at Rs. 1.5 lakhs and arrested the men who were from Tondaiarpet and Netaji Nagar. Police gave their names as Naaser (26), Muzaffar Siddiq (22), Vadivel (26), Das (45), Rajendran, Krisnakumar (39), Sheik Ali (28), and Farooq (22).

C. Sailendra Babu, Joint Commissioner of Police (North), said people should inform the nearest police station or call 100 when suspect they are being conned.

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