Three unidentified miscreants, posing as traders in jewels, conned a diamond trader and escaped with diamonds worth nearly Rs 43 lakh.
Following directions from senior police officers, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths have taken up the case and are now on the lookout for the accused.
As his luck would have it, the victim has no details of the accused, apart from the mobile phone number of one of the accused, which could have helped the police.
Based on the CCTV footage, the CCB sleuths have dispatched images of the accused persons to all police stations seeking information about them. The diamond dealer, identified as Mr Kiran P. Mehta, a resident of V.V. Puram, has a shop on Avenue Road.
A police officer, who is part of the investigations, said one of the three accused had identified himself as Raja from Salem.
It is learnt that the accused had approached the victim at his shop a few days back. Raja, along with another person, is said to have claimed that they were looking for diamonds for another jeweler in Salem.
Even without verifying their antecedents, Mr Mehta showed them the diamonds and Raja and the other person started negotiating the price. Later, the duo left saying they will return with the jeweller from Salem.
Raja later returned with two others, including the one posing as a jeweller from Salem, and checked the diamonds of 44.24 carats, each worth around Rs 48,000, and 38.52 carats, each worth around Rs 58,000, which were kept in separate packets. They haggled over the price and left saying they would return and purchase all the diamonds.
They came back after some time, checked the diamonds again and put it in a small envelope. They even sealed it with cellophane tape and Raja signed on the cover. They told Mr Mehta they would come the next day and will pay an advance of Rs 5 lakh.
While they were negotiating the price, one of the accused was holding the sealed envelope. At the same time, Mr Mehta got a call on his mobile phone and he handed the mobile to his employee to answer the call.
Just then, the accused replaced the envelope with another one which had fake diamonds. The trio later left saying that they will return the next day and finalise the deal.
When the trio did not turn, Mr Mehta called on Raja’s mobile but did not get any response. Sensing foul play, he immediately checked the envelope only to realise that he has been conned.
However, the entire con act was recorded on CCTV. The accused might have escaped to Maharashtra after committing the crime, the officer added.