A gang that had cheated people in the district by selling fake gold was busted by the Ramagundam CCS police with the help of the Manthani police.
Three persons of the gang were arrested while another person escaped when the police conducted vehicle checking at Manthani town on Friday.
Disclosing this to media persons in Ramagundam, Additional DCP (admn) Ashok Kumar said they arrested Devarakonda Ravi (23) of Kurnool district, Arukala Nagaraju (38) of Anantapur and SN Pradeep (38) of Karnataka. The main accused Praveen Kumar of Karnataka was at large. The police recovered one kg fake gold granules, eight cellular phones and a car with Karnataka registration.
The gang members deceived many people, saying they were offering gold at a cheap price on the plea that they had mined it. They cheated a farmer, Manthani Lingaiah, at Khansaipeta village by selling him fake gold granules of one kg and collected ₹5 lakh from him. CCS ACP Maheshwar, and inspectors Venkateshwar and Srinivas were present.