New Delhi, May 9: A father and son, who claimed that they were preparing equipment to sell to NASA for Rs 37,500 crore, have been arrested by Delhi Police — after a businessman complained that he had been duped of Rs 1.43 crore by them.

The accused would tell investors that they were building a device called the ‘rice puller’, which could be used to generate “electricity from thunderbolts”, and that they would sell it to NASA via the DRDO once it was ready.

Police said that they had duped at least 30 people from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. JCP (Crime Branch) Alok Kumar identified the arrested accused as Virender Mohan Brar (56) and his son Nitin Mohan Brar (30).

Police said they had recovered what the accused claimed were “copper plates, anti-radiation suits, anti-radiation chemical stickers” as well as a laptop, printer, foreign cheque books, fake ID cards and an Audi car from their possession.

“A few years ago, the complainant, Narender Saini, met Virender, who told him his company would sell the ‘rice puller’ to NASA after building it. He said he needed seed money for this purpose,” JCP Kumar said.

Police said Virender told Saini that he would be paid Rs 10 crore as soon as tests for the equipment were successful. “Saini entered into an MoU with Virender and paid Rs 87.2 lakh for ‘anti-radiation suits’, which the accused said would be worn by scientists during testing. They said tests were scheduled in Hapur, but could not be held as the place was ‘not conducive’. They also took him to an office in East of Kailash to convince him that he was not being conned,” he said.

The accused also “roped in fake actors posing as DRDO officials, after giving them a salary of Rs 20,000, just to convince Saini about the authenticity of the equipment,” DCP Bhisham Singh said, adding that the father-son duo were also arrested, and released on bail, earlier.

“They were earlier arrested when they allegedly sold snakes in Dehradun for Rs 17 lakh by claiming that the reptiles were rare and had medicinal properties. They were also arrested from Kurukshetra in a separate case, but resumed duping people once they came out,” an official said.

Police said they stayed in the posh Meera Bagh area at a rent of Rs 60,000 per month. “They travelled in luxury cars with two personal security officers who carried weapons, at a salary of Rs 35,000. They wore branded clothes and sported expensive watches. With their confidence and fluent English, most people would not suspect them,” an officer said, adding that they ran seven offices in Delhi.

“Virender ran a motor workshop in the 1990s and Nitin assisted him. But they faced financial losses and started duping people on the pretext of selling rare and antique objects such as magic mirror, rice puller and two-headed snakes,” Kumar said. “The arrest was made by a team of inspector Sunil Jain and ACP Aditya Gautam.”

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New Delhi, May 11 (PTI): The BSF on Sunday said a second trooper was killed in action after Pakistan initiated cross-border firing in the Jammu region a day ago.

"Constable Deepak Chimngakham sustained fatal injuries during cross-border firing along the International Boundary in R S Pura area, Jammu district, on May 10, and attained martyrdom on May 11," the Border Security Force (BSF) said in a social media post.

The BSF director general and all ranks express their deepest condolences to his family, it said.

Eight troopers of the BSF's 7th Battalion were injured in Saturday's shelling and sub-inspector Mohammed Imteyaz later succumbed to his injuries.

A wreath-laying ceremony was held with full military honours at the BSF's frontier headquarters in Jammu's Paloura on Sunday for Imteyaz.

His last rites will be performed at his native Narayanpur village in Bihar's Saran district on Monday.

A similar wreath-laying ceremony to honour Chimngakham will be held at the BSF's frontier headquarters on Monday.

The firing between BSF and Pakistani forces took place after India launched Operation Sindoor following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.

The military operation by the Indian Armed Forces was launched on May 7 and nine terror infrastructures were destroyed in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). All subsequent retaliations to Pakistani offensives were carried out as part of this operation.

The two countries reached an agreement to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea on Saturday after four days of cross-border strikes that triggered fears of a wider conflict.