Hyderabad: The Rachakonda police busted a rice pulling racket and arrested six men, including a retired home guard, who were cheating businessmen by giving them a rice pulling bowl saying that with it they can multiply their assets. The arrested suspects are K. Maisaiah, K. Kondaiah, K. Spoorthy Reddy, J. Venkata Ramana, G. Ramesh and M. Swamy. One Narayan Reddy is absconding.
Police also seized rice pulling equipment (laser radiation mach-ine, a pump, battery, inverter, power supply stabiliser and plus box, copper bowl, three copper pitchers and one chemical bottle), puja items and mobile phones from them.
Jt. CP Tarun Joshi said that Maisaiah, a JCB driver, and his friend Kondaiah used to collect plant roots and prepare Ayurvedic medications. He frequently visited Kurnool and met Spoorthy Reddy who was also into the same business. Later, Spoorthi and Narayana introduced the rice pulling technique to Kondaiah, who after returning to his place, shared the information with friend Maisaiah. “The two met Spoorthi, whom he introduced to Ramesh, a retired home guard, and recommended his name to the gang. The four met Narayana and collected the rice pulling machine, planning to sell it for '3 lakh,” Mr Joshi said.
While they were waiting for a buyer, Ramesh approached J.V. Raman-araju, an astrologer, and informed him about the rice pulling machine. Ramanaraju advised the victim Srinivas Raju to approach the suspects for the rice pulling machine in March 2017.
“They showed him a demo and he agreed to purchase it for Rs 6 lakh and paid Rs 50,000 as advance. Later, when he contacted them they did not respond,” he added.
He filed a complaint and a case was registered. The arrested men were remanded.
