6 youths from Delhi, UP nabbed for duping jewellers

Kochi, Oct 10 (UNI) Six youths from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were nabbed here today for allegedly duping jewellers in the city and Thrissur with fake gold powder.

Police said the staff from a jewellery shop in the city -- Thaliath Jewellers -- alerted them today when two youths, identified as Islamuddin and Anwar, approached them for selling non-refined gold powder.

In a similar incident in Thrissur yesterday, a gold testing centre was duped of Rs 85 lakh when four youths offered to sell non-refined gold powder. While the sample given by the youths was tested as 24 carat gold powder, the balance nine kg sold by them contained no gold.

According to police, the two youths who approached the jewellery shop here had given a good sample to Thaliath Jewellers on October five and had been asked to come today with the powder that they wanted to sell.

However, as the staff of the shop here had read about yesterday's Thrissur duping in the newspapers this morning, they alerted the police, who nabbed the two youths.

After interrogating them, police raided a house in the city where their accomplices were staying and arrested four more men, aged between 20 to 40 years. Rs 85.29 lakh was seized from them.

Their two other associates, identified as Arif and Idris, were absconding.

Apart from Islamuddin and Anwar, the others arrested were identified as Gul Mohammad, Nur Mohammad, Umed Ali and Jaheed. They hailed from Delhi and Ghaziabad and Meerut in UP.

UNI