MANGALURU: A man has been allegedly duped to the tune of Rs 9.2 lakh, by miscreants who claimed they were in possession of an expensive liquid that would convert black money into white.
Rohidas, in a complaint filed at the Kavoor police station on Thursday, stated that he had advertised in a Kannada daily on November 25 and November 29 last year, that a house that he had built was available for sale. A week after the advertisement was published, he received a call from Nithin Raj Bengaluru and Dharanraj Vitla, stating that they were working for a real estate company in Bengaluru, and their boss was looking for a house in Mangaluru.
They decided to meet at Srirangapatna. They told him they were in possession of Rs 1.5 crore in black money from politicians, of which they would give him Rs 50 lakh as an advance. They said they also had a liquid that would convert the black money into white.
This type of scam is called a wash-wash scam, where the conman attempts to obtain money from the victims through deception. They make it look as if a bundle of papers are currency notes that had been dyed to avoid detection, which can be brought back to its original form if treated with a particular chemical.
In this case, the conmen, after conducting a demonstration, told Rohidas that he could take the bag with the money and liquid to his home, and convert the black money they had given him as an advance into white, using the liquid. Dhanraj and the complainant decided to travel together. The bag with the paper bundles and liquid were placed in the boot of Dhanraj's car. After travelling for a kilometre, Dhanraj stopped the car and said that he heard a sound from the boot. He got down and told Rohidas that the bottle was empty, and immediately called Nithin. Nithin reached the spot and after scolding them initially, said that it was an expensive liquid costing Rs 25 lakh. Nitin said that if they both wanted the liquid, they would have to shell out Rs 15 lakh and that he would arrange Rs 10 lakh. Rohidas, pawned his jewellery and gave Rs 9.2 lakh in March this year for the same.
