Delhi Police arrests two persons for cheating, impersonating BJP officials

New Delhi [India], May 16 : Two persons were arrested by a team of Delhi Police for cheating and deceiving the people including government officials and politicians by impersonating themselves as the Bharatiya Janata Party officials, police said on Tuesday.

The arrested persons were identified as Praveen Kumar (19) and Piyush Kumar Srivastava (34) who hailed from Delhi and Lucknow respectively.

The police swung into action when they received a complaint from an office bearer of BJP Headquarters that some people are impersonating themselves as party officials and are attempting to cheat and deceive party leaders, workers, Government officials etc. in different states and such people are claiming themselves to be associated with the Central Office.

According to the police, the accused persons had been successful in some of their attempts to dupe people and had cheated about Rs 1 crore from various people and companies.

"After preliminary enquiry into the complaint, a case under section 419/420/468/471/120B IPC was registered at Cyber Police Station Central district," the police said.

During the investigation, the Consumer Application Forms (CAFs) and CDRs of the available mobile numbers were procured through mobile service providers.

"CAF of one of the suspect numbers was found in the name of Praveen Kumar resident of Gharoli but no specific address was found. The team called the alleged number posing as a contractor seeking help in getting a contract and he agreed to meet at Mayur Vihar. Police personnel were deployed around the meeting place in plain clothes and they apprehended the alleged person as soon as he arrived," the police said.

During interrogation, he confessed to his crime and disclosed that he used to search the details of politicians and office bearers of the party through the internet. He came in contact with various politicians of the North Eastern States.

The police said that Praveen Kumar used to cheat them in the name of party funds and in lieu of recommending them for some important responsibilities.

"In lieu of that, he used to get benefits from them in the name of hotel bookings, tickets for air travel and money for other expenses. To impress the leaders, he was using his photos with some known leaders of North Eastern States. This way, he extracted money in lakhs from many leaders, Govt. officials, contractors etc," the police said.

Another mobile number was found in the name of one Piyush Kumar Srivastava resident of Lucknow.

"A team contacted him posing themselves as a businessman seeking some favour and when he came to meet, he was apprehended with his mobile phone which he was using to deceive the people by impersonating himself as OSD to National President," the police said.

"He used to send the copy of fake visiting cards through WhatsApp to various higher officials of government companies such as GAIL, SAIL, ONGC, BHEL, and IRCTC to get the benefit of CSR. He managed to take Rs 45 lakh from GAIL under CSR," they added.

The police officials apprehended three mobile phones, and four sim cars used in the commission of crime, four bank accounts used to cheat money, 55 fake visiting cards in the name of OSD to National President and a laptop used in the crime.

Further investigation is in progress.