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: The Union Ministry of Culture allegedly spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print advertisements marking the 100-year celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.

The information was sought by RTI activist Ajay Basudev Bose, who filed an application seeking details on expenditure incurred by the ministry for advertisements commemorating the RSS centenary.

Bose shared a picture of the reply from the ministry on his official ‘X’ handle.

“It is informed that an amount of Rs 76,13,129 has been spent on advertisement given in various print media by the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the completion of 100 years of RSS,” the government’s reply stated.

Bose questioned the expenditure in the post X, “when Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??”

Reacting to the development, Karnataka’s IT-BT and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge also criticised the spending.

In a post on X, he asked why public money was being used for what he described as a “private ideological project.”

"Modi Sarkar spent Rs 76,13,129 of public money on newspaper advertisements to celebrate 100 years of the RSS. Why is Government spending taxpayers money on an unregistered, non-tax-paying organisation to celebrate their centenary?," he added. 

According to reports, the RSS describes itself as a volunteer-based organisation and has stated that it functions as a body of individuals rather than a registered entity.

Founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925, the organisation is marking its centenary year beginning from Vijaydashami in 2025, with the milestone observed on October 2.