Chennai: Five persons have been arrested for cheating a woman looking for Rs 50 lakhs to fund her school in Bengaluru. Police said Annapoorani, (55), a retired teacher, contacted the conmen through a low-interest loan advertisement in a Bengaluru-based English daily, and was asked to come for a meeting on February 21.
During the meeting the gang demanded Rs 10 lakh as advance commission for arranging the loan and she agreed. The gang asked her to bring the money and wait near Chennai airport on February 26.
It collected the money from her near a luxury hotel. In return, it handed over a packet which it claimed was her money. The gang suggested her not to count the money in public and take it home. At home, she found only wads of plain papers in the packet. Annapoorani preferred a complaint with Chennai police. The gang was nabbed by cops.
The quintet were identified as Sharun (a) Vinodh, (28), Ajithkumar (a) Ashok, (35), Shibin (a) Siddharth, (27), Prince, (26) and Ripin Abraham (26).
While Ripin is from Coimbatore, the rest are from Kerala.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Sharun had successfully conned a dozen entrepreneurs here and in neighbouring Kerala. Police managed to seize Rs 13.6 lakh, 17 sovereign jewels, and two cars from the gang. They were remanded to judicial custody.
