Two men have been arrested by Bidhannagar police for allegedly duping people by making them invest in their business of supplying “super rare radioactive metals” to research institutions.
A team from Narayanpur police station arrested Balawal Haider, 25, who is from Purnia in Bihar, and Safique Ahmed, 40, who is from Barasat. Police said the two were picked up from their rented accommodations in Rajarhat early on Monday.
A senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said the men would introduce themselves to their victims as officials of “Universal Group”, which they said was in the business of supplying rare metals to the American space agency, Nasa, and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
“They would also claim that their company was involved in marketing inventions of Nasa and DRDO and ask their victims to invest in their business,” an officer said.
The men would promise very high returns on investments — thrice or four times the amount one would put in, the officer said.
“In order to gain trust of the victims, with whom they usually established contact through social media, the men would at first use documents such as letterheads with the names of the organisations such as Nasa, IMF, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and DRDO written on them. We have seized several such documents,” the officer said.
One of the documents purportedly says the metal they supply to organisations such as DRDO is “copper iridium that possesses radioactive powers” and certifies its power as “cosmic energy”.
“These men have managed to dupe many people this way. During questioning, they have told us that they were also in the business of selling fake antiques,” said the officer.
The police arrested the men on the basis of a complaint lodged by a woman who is from Mumbai but stays in a rented accommodation in Narayanpur in Rajarhat.
She alleged that her name and identity documents had been used by the men to open an account in which they directed the payments they received from their victims.
An officer said Haider and Ahmed were jobless and their sole source of earning was duping people.
The police have charged the men under various sections of the IPC, including 420 (cheating) and 471 (using forged documents). They have been remanded in jail custody for 14 days.