Savli police have nabbed nine members of a gang who went on to extort Rs 5.75 lakh from a retired teacher in the name of giving supernatural black turmeric. They earned the faith of the teacher saying that it is used to launch satellites as it has radioactive powers.
According to the complaint registered at Savli police station, Sureshbhai Phulabhai Parmar lives with his family in Anand district after retiring from Mandvapura Primary School. Three months ago while sitting near a cold drink shop near Raswadi, three people were talking about some antique pieces like x-ray vision glasses, black turmeric, peacock feathers (which have radioactive power), a Rice puller (RP), cathode, and libo coin.
They befriended him and told him about black turmeric having radioactive powers and alpha, beta, gamma rays are emitted from it. It is discovered by scientists and used in satellite launching. One of them Pravin Solanki said that Salim Habibbhai Syed, a resident of Pandarwala village in Mahisagar district, has a kilo of black turmeric, which is to be sold for Rs 2.50 crore and its market value is around Rs 10 crore.
The retired teacher gave his mobile number to the thug trio after hearing about antique pieces. Meanwhile, in June, one of the accused Praveen Solanki called and said that someone in Udaipur, Rajasthan, had black turmeric, but he will have to give Rs. 5 lakhs token. The victim took Rs 5.70 lakh and went with the thug trio, where they took money from him pretending to purchase the material. After not returning for three hours, the victim called Praveen Solanki who said that the weather is not good and the turmeric might go stale, and hence the token amount was taken. And the person will bring it with him when he visits Vadodara.
After giving Rs 5.70 lakh to the gang, retired teacher Sureshbhai Parmar felt that he was trapped. Meanwhile, Pravin Solanki called him and said that on 3-9-21, one person from Udaipur is visiting and asked the victim to bring 2 crores to confirm the material after testing.
Growing suspicious the teacher approached Savli Police and after a trap the team caught nine members of the gang from near Gandiapura village. The arrested are Sanjay Pandit, Sunil Prajapati, Girish Prajapati, Salim Saiyed, Kala Parmar, Pravin Solanki, Vitthal Patel, Soyeb Bidani, Israr Pathan and seized items including vehicles and cash from them.
