Fake I-T men con 2 families of gold, cash within 24 hourrs

CHENNAI: The police are investigating two cases of people being conned of valuables, both suspected to be the handiwork of the same gang of fake income tax officials and carried out within less than 24 hours of each other.
After an elderly woman was cheated of Rs 500 and eight sovereigns of gold worth nearly Rs 2 lakh in Adambakkam early on Thursday by five I-T ‘officials’; the same night, a 50-year-old businessman in Red Hills was cheated of 12 sovereigns of gold jewellery worth nearly Rs 3 lakh and four mobile phones following a similar ‘raid’.

Around 11.30pm, a police officer said, Purushothaman, who is also a farmer, answered a knock on his door and was confronted by five men, who said they were I-T officials on an official ‘search’ operation. Purushothaman, who had not faced any ‘raid’ before, believed they were genuine as they seemed to follow a well-drilled procedure, asking him to present documents for the land and property he owned and the receipt for the 12 sovereigns of gold jewellery he possessed. When Purushothaman’s son Karthik demanded that they show their identity cards, one ‘official’ slapped him, asking him not to interrupt a ‘raid’. When Purushothaman said he had no receipt for jewellery, they snatched the gold and four mobile phones before driving away in the car they had come in, saying he could collect the gold and phones from the Sholavaram police station. It was only after Purushothaman went to the police station and found that no raid had been authorised by the I-T department, he realised he had been conned.
Early that morning, a gang arrived at the house of Neela, 80, at Ram Nagar in Adambakkam. ‘Identifying’ themselves as I-T officials, they said her son Venkatesh, who lived elsewhere in the city with his family, possessed black money and that they had come to seize the money and other documents. After snatching Rs 500 and her gold bangles, they even attacked Neela when she tried to alert some of her neighbours.
The police who registered two separate cases are now scanning CCTV camera footage to trace the suspects. Investigators believe the same gang was involved in the two incidents as the modus operandi and the appearance of the group members – they were all well-built and spoke fluent English – were smiliar. “We showed the victims in the two cases the photographs of previous offenders who had used the same modus operandi. It is mainly people from the northern parts of the state who carry out such offences,” said an investigating officer.