Conmen posing as DRDO scientists dupe a man of Rs 25 lakh

The accused were Pagidimarry Shiva, 43, of Old Alwal, Gulluru Manjunath Reddy, 38, of Kuppam, and Pratap S. R alias Ravinder Prasad, 44, of Bengaluru. Police recovered from the cash, a copper vessel and seven mobile phones. During interrogation, the accused revealed that they planned to dupe gullible persons in the guise of ‘rice-pulling’ and for this purpose, they made a copper vessel which is made to believe as containing super natural powers, Task Force DCP Y.V.S. Sudheendra said.

Manjunath Reddy got the contact of the complainant, Shashikanth, through a common friend and lured him in the guise of ‘rice-pulling business’ by showing the ‘copper vessel’ and made him believe that it has supernatural powers, and with it money doubles, Sudheendra said.

This business of selling the copper vessel is executed through a company known as `Appreches and Research,` the DCP said.

Later, Shiva Santhosh met the complainant at Minerva Grand, SD Road, Secunderabad and introduced himself as an employee of the said company. He also disclosed that the quality of the vessel is tested only through a ‘scanner’ for doing business, which is available with DRDO, for which the complainant has to pay Rs 25 lakh, the DCP said.

Both accused on June 10 introduced another accused Pratap S. R. alias Ravinder Prasad and they posed as scientists of DRDO and collected Rs 25 lakh from the victim. The complainant grew suspicious after they demanded another Rs 23 lakh when he approached the police.

The accused along with the seized properties have been handed to Mahankali police and produced before court for judicial remand on Wednesday.