HYDERABAD: Aseven-member inter-State gang duping people byoffering to sell them anantique metal pot with magical powers was busted by the North Zone taskforce police.The gang is wanted in several cases involving Rs 50 lakh fraud in the city.DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP) Task Force VB Kamalasan Reddy toldreporters on Fridaythat the gangsters made people believe that the pothad super natural powers like attracting rice.Kaleemullah Khan,a native of Bangalore, was the mastermind who devised the plot and executed it with the help of his friends.TheDCP said the key accused had gained knowledge about rice-pulling metalby surfing websites. He procuredan ordinary copper potand startedpublicising that it was an antique panchaloha vessel withthe peculiarproperty of pulling rice towards it. He claimed its valueto be Rs 100crore in the international market.In order to make the buyersbelieve his claims, Kaleemullah packed it elaborately in several layerswith cotton, tubes and carbon papers and finally in a thermocoal box.“Thegang collected Rs 25 lakh from a businessman, Krishna Prasad bypromising to deliverthe pot to him. However, when they failed to keeptheir promise even after a few months, Krishna Prasad had approachedthe police,’’ Kamalasan Reddy said.Task force sleuths nabbed theseven members of the gang - WasimullahKhan, Syed Maqbool, SyedNazzeer, Shaik Murthuza, Shaik MohdSaad and Mohd. Jaber besidesKaleemullah - and recovered an Innova car, incriminating documents, Rs17,000 cash and four mobile phones from them.Four cases are pending against the gang at Begum Bazar, Saidabad and Bahadurapura police stations.