Inter-State Fake Gold Chain Racket Busted in Bhubaneswar, 2 Held

The Sahid Nagar police in Bhubaneswar on Saturday busted an inter-state racket involved in selling duplicate gold chains to unsuspecting customers and jewellery shops by passing those off as genuine. Two conduits of the racket have been arrested.

The arrested accused are natives of Chhattisgarh. Duplicate gold chains weighing around two kilograms have been recovered from their possession.

Acting on a tip-off, the Sahid Nagar police conducted a raid at a hideout and arrested both the frauds having links with an inter-state racket while they were striking a deal to sell the duplicate gold chains at Rs 20 lakh in the market.

“The inter-state racket from Chhattisgarh is operating in an organised and planned manner. They have recently targetted the Odisha market as police in the neighbouring state have intensified searches for the conduits,” said ACP Sanjeev Satpathy.

“The frauds would target gullible jewelry store owners and buyers to sell their duplicate products. They used to trap them by showing some samples of pure gold and then replace those with their counterfeits before selling them high prices,” said Satpathy.

Further investigation into the incident is on to nab the other members of the inter-state racket.

“We are interrogating both the frauds and they have admitted to their links with the inter-state racket operating from the neighbouring state. We got vital information from them and hopefully the whole racket will be busted soon,” said Satpathy.

Earlier last year, the Jharsuguda police had busted a gang selling fake gold in the area. As many as three persons had been arrested in this connection.