Unit 11 of the Mumbai Crime Branch arrested a gang of five recently that duped people to invest in testing a device that they claimed would be sold to agencies such as ISRO, NASA and DRDO. According to the police, the fraudsters even dressed up to appear as scientists and met investors in five-star hotels.

Crime Branch officials said the scam has been fooling people across the globe. In the name of a device called a 'rice puller' (a metal device that can pull rice grains), fraudsters cheat people saying agencies like ISRO and DRDO were willing to purchase it from Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 35,000 crore, if its genuineness was proved after testing.