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Losing a fortune to ‘rice-pulling’ fakes

Published: Friday, Aug 7, 2009, 13:21 IST
By Santosh Kumar | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

With three persons being arrested in two separate cases recently, ‘rice pulling’ seems to have become an increasingly popular way of cheating gullible persons in the city.

While science is at pains to explain if the copper and bronze vessels can actually draw grains of rice towards them, it has been established as the best way for fraudsters to relieve unsuspecting individuals of their material wealth.

According to police, the swindlersclaim that their vessels have turned into uranium, used by nuclear power reactors as raw material, after attaining magical powers. Strangely enough, they are finding many takers for their cock-and-bull stories.

The most recent rice-pulling fraud involved HM Chandrashekharaiah, a planter from Agumbe in Shimoga district. According to him, a lightning bolt had hit a coconut tree near his house and a copper vessel kept under it.

When he told a friend, BN Ramesh, about the incident, the latter told Chandrashekharaiah that the vessel could now perform miracles – including rice pulling. Stating that the government would be willing to pay through its teeth for such a utensil, he asked for Rs28-lakh “processing fee” from Chandrashekharaiah.

As security for the money, Ramesh gave him a cheque of Rs51 lakh. However, when Chandrashekharaiah went to a nearby bank to verify the cheque’s genuineness, he realised that he had been cheated. He lodged a complaint with the Upparpet police, who arrested Ramesh.

In another incident, Radhakrishna from Padmanabhanagar faced a similar problem. Upon receiving news that a person from Gowribidanur in Chikaballapur possessed an enchanted ‘rice-pulling’ vessel, he decided to buy it. On Monday, he set out for the place, only to get kidnapped.

Ramesh, one of the persons arrested for the kidnapping, said, “I do not know if Radhakrishna was shown the vessel or not, but I am sure that he had come to buy it. My bosses Sriram and Nagaraj had summoned Radhakrishna to Gowribidanur.”

The police had rescued Radhakrishna from Adi Narayanaswamy hills, bordering Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, on Wednesday.

Regards

Black BirÐ

Months back, Uttam, an employee of antique trader S Rangappa, had first informed him about the rare antique' a rice puller. There is popular myth among antique collectors that some people in West Bengal have a rare piece of metal (copper iridium) with supernatural powers. It is supposed to pull rice.

"During British rule, the government had installed copper sticks to mark land for distribution. In recent years, rumour spread that these century-old bars had turned into copper iridium and they had supernatural powers. These are known as rice pullers. In the antique market, they are expensive items," explained an antique dealer.

In August 2008, Uttam took Rangappa to Ajit Dev, a resident of Krishnagar, who promised to arrange a rice puller for him. Rangappa and two of his friends paid more than Rs. 60 lakh as advance for the antique item'.

Gradually, they came in touch with Subhajit Basu, Jit Ghosh, Rajiv Sikdar, Tapan Roy and Tarun Roy through Ajit.

The gang took them to Krishnagar and Siliguri. They apparently even showed the dealers a pyramid-shaped piece of metal, which actually pulled rice. Convinced, Rangappa went to Kakdwip, where the gang had promised to deliver the item. While returning, his motorboat got stuck in the mud. Though he reached the shore, Rangappa realised the metal piece was gone. Suspecting that he was being duped, he lodged a complaint with police.

Probe revealed that the rice puller' myth had been spread by the gang. CID officers nabbed the seven fraudsters but failed to recover the money. Sources said the kingpin of the racket is still at large. All seven have been remanded in police custody.

Read more: Magic metal fraud: CID nabs seven, kingpin still at large - The Times of India -