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Sohrab: Fake CBI officers assured help to accused
The two conmen had approached an accused IPS officer and promised him help in diluting the case against him and others in return for payment of a few lakh rupees.
The two conmen -- Ashwini Kumar Sharma and Rajesh Ranjan
-- who have been arrested by the CBI earlier for their alleged
role in duping people, had approached an accused IPS officer
and promised him help in diluting the case against him and
others in return for payment of a few lakh rupees, sources
privy to the probe said today.
The sources said Sharma and Rajan, who were posing as CBI
officers, had approached the accused people through a
Gujarat-based businessman, who is at present on the run and
has not turned himself to the CBI despite several summons
served to him.
The case became murkier when one of the accused turned
out to be a relative of the Superintendent of Police of CBI
who was probing the Sohrabbuddin case prompting the higher ups
in the agency to transfer the officer immediately and also
instituting an in-house enquiry to probe the allegations.
According to the sources, the allegations against the CBI
officer who was shifted to Delhi had not been found true in
so far any complicity on the part of the officer was
concerned.
The CBI stumbled upon the role of the conmen recently
when one of them was again arrested by the Mumbai police for
allegedly duping a businessman.
The information was passed on to the CBI which was
relevant to their investigations into the Sohrabuddin case.
Sharma and Ranjan, who were arrested in August last year,
have allegedly cheated over 200 persons including film
personalities and businessmen. According to the agency, the
accused have been cheating people since 2006 by posing as CBI
officers.
The duo`s luck however ran out when they approached film
producer Rakesh Roshan seeking money to settle a civil matter
the filmmaker was embroiled in. Roshan allegedly paid a huge
amount to the conmen and then approached the anti-corruption
wing of CBI when his matter was not settled as assured.
Sharma would take his victims to government offices
claiming to have contacts there and would ask them to sit
outside. He had in fact once visited Tanna House, CBI`s Mumbai
headquarters.
According to CBI, Sharma had also approached R P Meena,
commissioner of Income Tax, arrested in a graft case, and had
sought money from him to settle the case registered against
him.
PTI