Ludhiana, Sept. 17 -- Sadar police have booked a Basant Avenue resident for allegedly defrauding a city-based merchant navy officer of Rs.1.60 crore after promising him a machine that could generate electricity without oil or water.

The complainant, Jasmin Singh Grewal, told police that Ramandeep Singh, a resident of Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Nagar, Basant Avenue, approached him around two years ago, claiming to be developing a kinetic motion machine capable of generating electricity without oil or water.

Ramandeep allegedly demonstrated the purported technology and subsequently persuaded Grewal to invest in the project.

According to the complaint, Grewal initially paid Rs.7 lakh and made several payments towards components and technical...