A potato merchant, who alleged a couple of days ago that two persons in the guise of election officials looted Rs 46,000 from him, landed into police custody today when it was proved that he enacted a drama to swindle the money.
One Jaffer Siddiq of Mettupalayam near here had lodged a complaint on March 16 that he was stopped by two persons in a jeep at Ukkadam in the city and taken the money, in the pretext of possessing unaccounted money.
As part of investigation, police played the footage of camera fitted at the Ukkadam junction, which revealed that no jeep, as claimed by Jaffer had passed through the place at that particular time.
Growing suspicious, when police interrogated Jaffer, it was revealed that he had brought Rs 1.88 lakh as collection from neighbouring Kerala and wanted to swindle the part of the money and enacted a drama, using the incidents of seizure of unaccounted money by elections officials, police said.
