Thrissur: An 80-year-old man, who posed as a retired judge, was caught by Tamil Nadu police near Madurai while trying to sell some metal by claiming it was precious iridium.
Balakrishna Menon, a resident of Alagappa Nagar, Pudukkad, was arrested from Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar district amid his bid to sell a metal that he claimed was segregated from the ornamental dome of a temple.
The police said Menon, who was nabbed from a lodge on Lakshmi Perumal street, was using his fake status as a “retired judge” to win the confidence of prospective buyers of his metal. Along him, cops arrested Ravi Chandran and Sino Philip besides Punjab natives Subbier Singh and Iqbal Singh, along with Balamurugan and Balan of nearby Sundararajapuram.
The arrests were made after the police were tipped off by the driver of a cab in which Menon and his team were travelling. The man behind the wheel, overhearing the conversation of the travellers and being made to do several rounds, got suspicious about them.
As the police began to follow them, the men made an effort to flee near the Andal Kovil at Rajapalayam, 85 km southwest of Madurai, which is Tamil Nadu’s third biggest city also known for its sprawling vintage temples. The cops however managed to arrest them.
Earlier, Menon had been into similar fraudulent deals by posing as a retired naval doctor. On interrogation, the Trichur native confessed that he was neither a legal or medical professional.
