Hyderabad: Karnataka-based conmen used the ‘rice-pulling trick’ and sleight of hands to cheat a cloth merchant from Rein Bazaar and looted around Rs 5 lakh from him. The gang offered their help to make the victim rich using mysterious objects and took money from him before fleeing. The police busted the gang and arrested four people. Two other gang members are absconding.
The victim, Muhammad Ajaz Khan, 24, was lured by his acquaintance named Praveen from Bowenpally, who introduced him to the Karnataka gang. Police said Praveen told him that his friends from Bengaluru have an ancient copper vessel that has the ability to attract rice towards it. “He told Khan that the vessel has magical powers and it is worth crores. They did some simple magic tricks and convinced Khan about the object's magical powers,” said DCP V. Sathyanarayana.
Later, Khan was told the gang can double currency notes. “The two suspects, Rajagopal Yetta and Maksood Ahmad Khan, both from Karnataka, came to Khan’s house with a bundle of papers. They took '1,000 notes from Khan, placed it on a piece of paper that was the exact size as the currency note, blackened it and then turned it into Rs 10,000. Khan believed that it was a genuine act. But, it was a simple sleight of hand trick,” said the DCP.
What the men did was diverting Khan’s attention at the right moment and then replace the blackened paper with currency. "They blackened the paper using tincture iodine and gum. Then they diverted his attention and replaced the paper with a currency note, which was already blackened and kept with them. Then, they started removing the black colour revealing the currency note,” said the officer.
The convinced Khan then gave them Rs 5 lakh to double. They then asked him to fetch some hot water and when he went inside they replaced the '5 lakh with paper and concealed the Rs 5 lakh in their bag. They covered the paper with cloth and asked him to remove it after 24 hours. “They escaped with the cash. The victim, Muhammad Ajaz Khan, realised that he was tricked only a few hours later,” said the police official.
