Kolkata, Dec 3 (IANS) A man duped a gold trader by purchasing jewellery valued at Rs 33 lakh in exchange for “fake” gold biscuits, said the police on Wednesday.

According to police sources, an agreement was made between a jewellery dealer in Hooghly district with a jewellery workshop in Ghola of North 24 Parganas district to exchange gold biscuits for gold jewellery.

An employee of the jewellery workshop returned to the shop in Ghola after receiving gold biscuits from the Hooghly jewellery dealer as part of the exchange.

However, while checking the gold biscuits’ authenticity, the workshop owner found it was fake.

The Hooghly jewellery dealer has disappeared.

The workshop owner first filed a complaint with the Ghola police station. Later, the complaint was sent to the Posta Police Station. Officers have started an investigation into the incident.

Police said that the owner of the jewellery workshop is a resident of Nataghar in the Ghola area.

A resident of Hooghly and a jewellery dealer contacted him. An agreement was made between the two that the Ghola dealer would give him jewellery. In return, the Hooghly dealer would give gold biscuits instead of money.

The Ghola dealer was informed that the Hooghly dealer would not go to Ghola. Instead, he would come to Sonapatti in Kolkata.

The Ghola dealer sent about 259 grams of gold jewellery through one of his employees.

A senior police officer said, “The jewellery was handed over in front of a sweet shop in the Sonapatti area. The person took the jewellery worth Rs 33 lakh in a packet. As per the agreement, he also gave him two gold biscuits in exchange. It is difficult to easily distinguish them from the real ones. But after taking them to the workshop and testing them, it was found that they were completely fake.”

Based on the complaint in this case, the police raided Rishra in Hooghly district in search of the accused gold dealer. Some jewellery was recovered from the house. However, the accused trader is absconding. Police said that searches are on to nab the gold dealer.

–IANS

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