Three held for trying to sell fake platinum

HYDERABAD: Three persons were on Monday nabbed for trying to sell titanium alloy ingot in the name of original platinum, a highly valuable material in the market.On information, the south zone Task Force sleuths nabbed the trio at Lonalova Bakery at Bowenpally and seized 550 grams of titanium alloy ingot from them. The trio included Md Abu Bakar, an L&T employee, R Mohan Babu, a businessman—  both belonging to Bhootpur in Mahabubnagar district and KVS Prasad of Balanagar.Additional DCP, Task Force, M Sreenivasulu said Abu Bakar got the titanium ingot from his friend, Ashwaq, who is a railway contractor. "The titanium ingot looks like pure platinum metal which is also called white gold and it costs more than gold," Sreenivasulu said.Abu Bakar and his two friends were searching for customers to sell the ingot for Rs 5 lakh when they were caught.  Police appealed to general public interested in purchasing platinum to buy it from licenced dealers or merchants but not from others.Task Force sleuths recovered a Ford Fiesta, a Tata Indica, three mobile phones and Rs 1,000 cash from the accused.