New Delhi, Nov 03: With the arrest of three persons, Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a gang involved in cheating a number of people to the tune of lakhs of rupees on the basis of forged documents in the name of several Union Ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister and several of his ministerial colleagues. Blank letter-heads of Union Ministers Nitish Kumar and C P Thakur, MPs Kishan Kumar Choudhary, Ganga Ram Kohli and OSD in Railways Ministry A K Singh and visiting cards of the Railways Minister, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik and Madhya Pradesh BJP President Uma Bharati were among a host of documents recovered from the accused, police said. Police also recovered fake recommendation letters and positive slides of visiting cards of virtually who's who in the higher echelons of the government, including Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of crime branch had received 30 complaints alleging that two persons -- Manoj Patel and Surender Sharma -- had represented themselves as former Bihar Agriculture Minister and PS to Railways Minister respectively and taken Rs 20 lakh on pretext of giving government jobs, Deputy Commissioner Of Police (EOW) Dinesh Bhatt said. As investigations revealed that no such persons of such a background existed, police conducted a raid and arrested Patel, Sharma along with third accused Nagarajan, he said. On modus operandi, Bhatt said Patel, an illiterate person from Bihar, used to introduce himself as a man with contacts in high places like ministers. The accused would charge between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh per person. Patel would visit government offices and embassies to contact lower staff with an intention of cheating, he said, adding to convince them, he would display visiting cards of ministers. In the present case, Patel used Nagarajan, a driver in the embassy of Burkino Faso, to lure people, Bhatt said. Nagarajan brought 30 people and organized a meeting in Bihar Bhawan with a man how identified himself as A K Singh, OSD to Railways Minister, the DCP said. The victims were impressed by the accused by showing fake recommendation letters and they paid a total of Rs. 20 lakh. Surender Sharma, a driver with MTNL, used to sign the forged letters in the assumed name of S K Sharma, PS to Health Minister.
Bureau Report