Hyderabad busts hidden treasure cheating racket, four held
Police have arrested four persons for allegedly cheating people of around Rs one crore by promising to locate hidden treasure buried beneath residential premises, officials said on Monday, August 10.
Police teams busted the racket, which targeted innocent persons on the false pretext of locating buried treasure beneath houses, and apprehended the four accused, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Taskforce) K S Rao said in a release.
As many as 11 people were cheated across different areas to the tune of around Rs one crore, police said.
According to the release, the prime accused allegedly hatched a plan to cheat gullible persons by claiming he possessed special knowledge and the ability to locate hidden treasure buried beneath their houses. He then contacted his friends, who agreed to join him in the scheme in order to earn easy money, police said.
The accused approached innocent and gullible people and collected money from them before digging at the identified spots. They allegedly planted a sack containing coal along with duplicate, gold-coated coins, and then fled the scene, telling victims it would take time for the coal to convert into gold, police said.
Police seized two four-wheelers, one auto-rickshaw, two motorcycles, four cell phones, 25 fake gold coins and six kilograms of coal from the possession of the accused, among other items.
A case has been registered at Rajendra Nagar Police Station and is under investigation, police said.
Police added that they have noticed a recent pattern of fraudsters moving through streets, villages and towns, claiming hidden or underground treasures are available in certain places and cheating gullible people by collecting money from them on false promises.
(Inputs from PTI)
