Three residents of Assam were arrested in Dinhata of Cooch Behar on Tuesday night for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of selling gold bars to them at cheaper prices.

Dyutiman Bhattacharya, the superintendent of police of Cooch Behar, said on Wednesday that Manish Kumar, a resident of Ghuskuri in Bihar, got a phone call
from an unidentified number on May 13. The caller introduced himself as Raju and
told him that he found a gold bar while digging the ground and wanted to sell it at a lower price than the current market rate of gold.

“The person had also sent a photo of the gold bar via Whatsapp. Manish agreed
to buy it and reached Dinhata on May 15. He met the trio who took them to their rented accommodation and showed him the bar. They had a negotiation and Manish agreed to buy the gold bar for ₹6.54 lakh,” said the district police chief.

On May 19, Manish went to Dinhata again and purchased the gold bar after paying ₹6.54 lakh in cash to the trio.

“Manish after returning to Bihar visited a jeweller who told him that it was a fake
gold bar,” the SP said.

He immediately filed a police complaint and a case was registered at Dinhata police station.

On Tuesday night, a police team arrested the trio who have been identified as Safikul Islam, Fokoruddin and Enamul Haque, informed the police chief.

During investigation, the police have come to know that all the three accused hail from Lakhimpur district of Assam.

“The trio used to stay at rented accommodations in and around Dinhata. In a planned manner, they would make calls to different locations across India and
would offer gold bars at lower prices. We suspect they have cheated a number of people
in such a manner,” said a police officer