Chennai, June 3 (UNI) In a significant breakthrough, the Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-CID

wing has unearthed a multi-crore Iridium Copper scam by the culprits posing as RBI

officials and arrested six people in this connection.

A CB-CID release here on Tuesday said those arrested included five from Tamil Nadu and

one from Telangana and several incriminating materials were seized from them.

It was a case of cheating of public by some groups across Tamil Nadu and neighbouring

states by collecting unauthorized deposits claiming that several thousand crore rupees

has been received from the central government through RBI for the sale of iridium copper.

They also con them saying service fee has to be paid to RBI and commission has to be

paid to higher officials of RBI to release the said amount.

These scamsters assure exorbitant returns in the range of crores by showing fabricated

RBI bonds to make the victims believe their scam.

The scam came to light when a complaint was lodged by a civilian in February 2024 on

the “Sachet” website of Reserve Bank of India for lodging complaints against unauthorized

deposit accepted by unincorporated bodies.

Subsequently, a complaint was filed by RBI Assistant General Manager A.J. Kennedy in

May 2024 to the Chennai Police Commissioner and the same was directed to the CBCID.

After conducting a preliminary enquiry, a case has been registered in Salem OCU CBCID

unit U/s 419, 465, 468, 471, 420 IPC and 66 D Information Technology Act 2000 r/w five

Emblems and Name (Prevention of Improper use) Act, 1950 and taken up for investigation

in March 2025.

During investigation, the accused persons Nithyanandham, Chandra (both from Thanjavur

district of Tamil Nadu) were arrested and remanded on May 28.

Further investigations led to the arrest of four more accused Anbumani from Dharmapuri

district, Muthusamy a native of Salem district, Kesavan also from Salem and Gadi Charla

Kishore Kumar of of Telangana state.

They were subsequently remanded in custody.

The release said a gold-coloured metal, few forged documents, Cell phones with incriminating

materials have been seized from the accused persons.

Inquiries revealed that the accused have cheated many people across Tamil Nadu and in Andhra

Pradesh.

So far, around 20 victims from Chennai, Thanjavur, Coimbatore, Salem, Namakkal and Dharmapuri,

have been identified and said to have been cheated of money to the tune of Rs 4.5 crores collectively by the accused persons.

The scamsters induced victims to invest money in the allegedly secretly maintained central government Iridium trade scheme by showing forged credit certificates in the name of the depositors with RBI emblem.

Thereafter, when the victims contacted them for the promised returns, the accused kept dodging them.

After a point, they hired persons to pose as RBI officials and meet the victims in star hotels in Delhi

or Mumbai and assure them of returns.

Once this is done, they even go to the extent of creating a bank account and share credentials with the victims saying money will be deposited in this account.

Investigation is going on to arrest remaining persons of this racket and to identify more victims.

UNI GV 0630