The Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths arrested a Ghana national on charge of cheating a city-based dairy owner of Rs. 29 lakh after promising to get him a “magic chemical” that helps replicate dollars.
According to the police, the victim, Ananth Basudeb, a native of Orissa settled in Bangalore, had placed an advertisement on an Internet portal to sell his house in Bhubaneswar so that he could invest the money on his dairy farm in Bangalore.
Soon, Mr. Basudeb was approached by one Mathura Francis, who enquired about the house and claimed he knew a foreign investor, who could help him double the currency notes.
After Mr. Basudeb agreed to the proposal, Mr. Francis invited him to Mumbai, promising to introduce him to Edmond Kotey, an international businessman. Mr. Basudeb went to Mumbai and met Kotey who assured to help him and took Rs. 85,000 as consultation fee, police said.
As per the deal, Kotey came to Bangalore in February. Kotey visited Basudeb’s house in Mahadevpura and gave a demonstration of the chemical, which he alleged could convert the blank paper into dollar notes.
Kotey sandwiched a dollar note between two blank papers, and poured the chemical on the papers and put it in a refrigerator. He opened the refrigerator after few minutes and took out three dollar notes in front of Mr. Basudeb. Kotey said the chemical was very costly and extracted Rs. 29 lakh from Mr. Basudeb for a bottle of the chemical. When Basudeb was unable to replicate the demonstration, he called Kotey for an explanation. Kotey said that the chemical could have passed its expiry date and demanded and additional 16,800 UK pounds to get a fresh bottle.
Suspecting something fishy, Basudeb apporached the Mahadevapura police and filed a complaint.
A team of officials approached Kotey through Mr. Basudeb stating that the money has been arranged and asked him to come to collect the money. The police nabbed Kotey when he landed in Bangalore, and upon questioning he confessed to the crime, police said.
