Coimbatore: Seven people, one of them a former police constable, have been arrested for duping a 24-year-old realtor of Rs 50,000 by promising him triple the amount in Erode.According to police, Prabhakaran, of Narayanavasalu in Erode, was a realtor and his friend A Palanisamy, 65, of Bhavani, had a few months ago introduced him to V Nagaraj, 40, a realtor from Pennagaram in Dharmapuri district, saying he had contact with a gang, which returned investors three-fold cash. “The duo convinced Prabhakaran that if he were to invest Rs 1 lakh, he could return with Rs 3 lakh immediately.”After months of persuasion, the two managed to woo Prabhakaran and asked him to wait at the VOC Park in Erode city with cash on Monday to meet the gang.As agreed upon, Prabhakaran reached the spot on Monday and gave Rs 50,000 to the gang members, who handed him over two bundles wrapped in a newspaper. “Suddenly, a cop appeared and attempted to question the gang members, who fled. Later, Prabhakaran opened the bundles and found it contained only two Rs 500 currency notes, while the remaining were just plain paper cuttings,” an investigation officer said.Prabhakaran alerted the Erode North police, who arrested the gang members and seized a car from them. All the arrested – Nagaraj; Palanisam; P Thangamani, 52, of Sattur in Virudhunagar district; R Sureshkumar, 38, of Anthiyur; M Satheesh, 32, of Ammapet; R Raghu alias Ragavendran of Bengaluru; and N Yasodha, 55, of Bengaluru - were produced before a local court, which remanded them in judicial custody.According to the officer, it was Thangamani, who came in the guise of a police officer. Thangamani was a police constable with Tamil Nadu special police at Kovaipudur in 1988 and he was placed under suspension in 1996. He was dismissed from the service in 2000. He was then working as a load man in a textile unit in Tirupur. He has two theft cases pending against him at the Karumathampatti police station and a murder and theft case at the Singnallur police station in Coimbatore.

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