New Delhi: She succeeded several times in
allegedly cheating people by posing as Officer on Special Duty
in Prime Minister's Office but the 51-year-old woman ran out
of luck after she approached DGCA chief Bharat Bhushan.
Sumangali Francina Easther Charles alias Suman Singh was
arrested here yesterday for allegedly approaching DGCA chief
Bharat Bhushan posing as an OSD in the Prime Minister' s
Office asking him to give an appointment to a debarred pilot,
police said today.
Suman, hailing from Hyderabad and married to a Delhi-
based builder, was apprehended from airport yesterday when she
reached here from Chennai, Sandeep Goel, Joint Commissioner of
Police (Crime), said.
The arrest came following a month-long investigation into
a complaint filed by Bhushan after he found that Esther alias
Suman Singh was not working with the PMO as she claimed during
the telephonic conversation she had with him.
Bhushan, the Director General of Civil Aviation, had told
police that one Suman Singh had telephoned him on December 20
last year introducing herself as OSD in PMO and had asked him
to give appointment to a pilot Captain Amar Singh.
"Bhushan met Amar Singh in his office the next day and
found that the pilot had been debarred from flying on account
of suspected fraud in obtaining licence. Bhushan then enquired
from the PMO and found that there was no OSD or other official
by the name Suman Singh.
"He then contacted Singh on her mobile on which she asked
him to come to PMO to meet her. On being confirmed that there
was no OSD by her name in PMO, she disconnected the phone and
did not respond," Goel said.
After registering a case, police began investigations and
found that same modus operandi was adopted by one Sumangali
Francina Easther Charles, who was earlier arrested in a
similar case by Crime Branch in 2003 in which she had
impersonated as Additional Private Secretary to then Deputy
Prime Minister L K Advani and had then called the Customs
Commissioner asking for a personal favour.
Later on, during trial of the case, the woman jumped bail
and was declared an absconder in October last year.
She was also arrested in April last year by Hyderabad
Police in a cheating case on the complaint of a city land
owner Mohammed Kaisar in which she posed herself as OSD in the
PMO and allegedly cheated him to the tune of Rs 50 lakh by
convincing him that she could help him in getting Rs 40 crore
compensation released to him in an evacuee custodian land.
Kaisar was pursuing the Kandhishika lands owned by his
forefathers as custodian. She allegedly convinced him that she
was an OSD and even showed him a visiting card to that effect.
"She collected Rs 50 lakh in cash from Kaisar. Further
Rs one crore was to be collected later. Kaisar made a
complaint to the police when he could not talk to her after
delivering money to her," Goel said.
In another case, she was again arrested in 2011 by
Hyderabad Police for allegedly cheating one Mohammed Khaleel
of Rs 10 lakh by promising to settle a land dispute, by using
her influence, again posing as OSD to Prime Minister, he said.
Her father was working as driving Instructor in Road
Transport Corporation in Hyderabad.
After completing her B.Com from Reddy’s Women College,
Hyderabad, she came to Delhi and tried hands at politics. She
married Charles Ravi Chandran in 1987 but later in 1990 got
separated. In 2002, she married one Jagmohan, a Delhi based
transporter.
"As she was used to a lavish lifestyle, she started
duping innocent people by impersonating herself as an IAS
officer and OSD in PMO. She used to collect money from
gullible people by promising them jobs and settling pending
works and disputes by talking to senior government officers.
"She also reportedly used a car with a red beacon in
Hyderabad, in the past, with a 'Government of India' sticker
on the number plate and sporting tri-colour.
She even reportedly attended some programmes as chief
guest in the capacity of a senior government official, conning
the public. To give no scope of doubt, she reportedly carried
a visiting card with a national emblem, like other senior
central government officers," Goel said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 21:48