Father-son duo who duped people with space suits held
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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UP: Misled by GPS navigation, car falls into river from partially constructed bridge, 3 dead
Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.
The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.
"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.
The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.
There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.
Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.
The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.
— Bareilly Police (@bareillypolice) November 24, 2024
