By IANS
Vadodara : Two women were arrested for selling fake gold ingots in Gujarat, a police official said Tuesday.
Police inspector, Makarpura, R.D. Lashkari said the two women were part of an all-woman gang and 10 members of the gang belong to one family.
The modus operandi was to tempt the gullible by pretending to sell real gold while giving them ingots made of base metal, he said.
The police arrested Parvatiben Koli and her daughter Sangita. Several fake ingots and a few genuine ones were seized. The two are in police custody.
The gang members passed off over 1,000 fake gold ingots as genuine ingots.
The gang members targeted housewives saying that when their land in Khanpur village in Panchmahals district was being dug up, a large ancient copper vessel was unearthed in which the gold ingots were found.
By pretending to sell these at a “reasonable rate”, the gang played on the greed of their victims, police said.
The gang hails from Chotila taluka of Rajkot district. They allegedly duped some people here and seven in Ankleshwar in Bharuch district.
Most of the victims were housewives in Khanpur village of Panchmahals district and the amount could run into millions of rupees, he said.
The police found that fake gold ingots were identical to what had been sold in Vadodara and Ankleshwar.
“The source of the fake ingots could be traced to Ahmedabad where it was made to order,” said Lashkari. “The Ahmedabad angle is being probed,” he added.