Three people were arrested on Tuesday night on the charge of selling fake gold jewellery to unsuspecting public in Jajpur district.
Following a complaint that a group of three persons were moving in the villages in the Badachana area hawking fake gold ornaments, the police started investigation and arrested them on National Highway-200 at Khalasapur.
The police zeroed in on them following a complaint of a victim, Basudev Das, of village Dhanamandal. Das, a businessman on Tuesday purchased 250 grams of gold from the arrested persons at a cost of Rs 2.50 lakh. But he came to know on Tuesday evening that he was sold fake ornaments. He immediately filed an FIR in the police station.
The arrested persons were identified as Tima Das (60) of Towntara village under the Binjharpur police station, Runa Das (23) of Binjharpur and Fakir Das (45) of Redhua under the Raghunathpur police station.
The police also seized about one kg of fake gold ornaments from them. The modus operandi of the miscreants was to dupe prospective buyers by showing them a few genuine gold items and replacing them with fakes at the time of sale, said the police.
The arrested persons were produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Chandkhol on Wednesday. The court rejected their bail applications and remanded them to jail
custody.