Kochi Vlogger Who Claimed To Have Tipu Sultan's Throne Held For Running ¡®Fake Antique¡¯ Racket

The Crime Branch has arrested a self-styled antique collector and amateur archaeologist and charged him with selling fake antiques, according to a report published in The Hindu.

The accused has been identified as Monson Mavunkal. He is a vlogger and he was pretending to be a German-trained cosmetologist and member of the World Peace Council. According to one investigator, Monson crossed the line between and fact and fiction in order to make some easy money.

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He claimed to own the ¡®staff of Moses,¡¯ silver pieces received by Judas Iscariot for betraying Jesus Christ to Roman soldiers and other such artefacts.

The accused allegedly also claimed that he had the throne of Tipu Sultan, a copy of the first edition of the Holy Bible, and books and parchments from the libraries of Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb and iconic Maratha King Chhatrapati Shivaji. It does not end there, he claimed to have original and unknown works of Raja Ravi Varma and Pablo Picasso.

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Monson has denied all the charges and reportedly told the investigators that customers were aware they were replicas.

Nonetheless, he has been arrested and he is also charged with financial fraud.

The list of victims is endless and many more people are believed to have fallen prey to this scam.