Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police on Saturday, April 25, arrested five individuals in an interstate gang allegedly involved in a series of silver refinery scams across Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
The gang led by Hridesh Kumar, a doctor from Agra, executed a well-planned heist by gaining the trust of Hilal Verma, owner of Sri Jagadamba Industries, a silver refinery located at Mahanali Street in Secunderabad.
According to Verma’s complaint, the gang cheated him of approximately Rs 15 lakh through known customers who exchanged counterfeit silver. Verma claimed that the accused persons, including a regular customer named Rajesh, visited the shop and presented raw silver bars along with a fabricated purity report from “Durga Bullion Refinery.”
He trusted the accused due to prior transactions and handed over 25 small silver bars weighing 6,350 grams, equivalent to 60 per cent purity.
During the investigation, the police found that the received material contained zero per cent silver. It was revealed that similar incidents were registered in the area, involving the same gang with total losses amounting to over 12 kg of silver.
The gang has reportedly committed similar offences across multiple states, including Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh, police said. The accused were apprehended from different locations and brought on transit warrants.
Authorities seized 8.4 kg of silver, Rs 1.5 lakh cash, and multiple mobile phones.
