HIGH PROFILE RACKET OF CHEATS BUSTED

• TWO PERSONS INCLUDING KINGPIN ARRESTED.
• TARGETED POLITICAL LEADERS/MINISTERS/GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.
• IMPOSTORS ACTED WITH GREAT CONFIDENCE AND ATTITUDE WHICH LED THE VICTIMS TO FALL IN TRAP.
• ACCUSED WERE GETTING FRUSTRATED THAT LIASIONING AND DEAL MARKING WAS NOT YIELDING DIVIDENDS IN PRESENT GOVT. AND WERE THEREFORE RESORTING TO CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES OF CHEATING AND EXTORTION.

INTRODUCTION: - Crime Branch has busted a racket of daredevil and cunning cheats who had the audacity to con very highly influential people, including the lawmakers themselves. Two accused persons namely Sanjay Kumar Tiwari S/o Sh. Om Parkash Tiwari R/o H No 22A, First Floor, Gali No 8, Pratap Nagar, Mayur Vihar, Phase-1, Delhi and Gaurav Sharma S/o Sh. Suresh Chand Sharma R/o A-620, Gadoli Dairy Colony, Mayur Vihar, Phase-3, Delhi have been arrested.  

INCIDENT: - On24/01/2017, Sh. Sushant Kumar Mukherjee, PS to Sh. Amar Kumar Bauri, Hon’ble Minister, Revenue, Registration & Land, Jharkhand alleged in his complaint that since last 3 days, an unknown caller from mobile number 98915XXXXX was calling the Minister, posing himself as Shri Ram Madhav (National General Secretary of the BJP) and asking him to contribute funds for elections. On 23/01/2017, the caller sent one person on his behalf to Jharkhand Bhawan, who met the Minister and demanded money for party funds.  On verification from the office of Shri Ram Madhav, it was ascertained that no such communication was ever made and it was clear that some criminals who are daredevil impostors/fraudsters are trying to cheat the Minister by posing themselves as top officer bearers. Contents of the complaint and preliminary enquiry suggested the involvement of an organized racket in such activities. Hence, a case vide FIR No. 11/17 was registered at PS-Crime Branch, Delhi under the relevant sections of law and investigation were taken up earnestly.

INFORMATION, TEAM & OPERATION: -

          Tell-tale signs of the incident were indicative of the involvement of a habitual/professional racket behind the incident.  Hence, to nab these racketeers, surveillance was mounted and exhaustive exercise was carried out against several active rackets having similar modus operandi. The gang headed by Sanjay Kumar Tiwari was zeroed down. On 25/01/2017, a specific information was received that Sanjay Kumar Tiwari would come near ITO to meet his accomplices. Accordingly, a team led by ACP Sanjay Sehrawat consisting of Insp. Sunil Kumar, SIs Neeraj Kumar, Vijay Samaria, ASI Vaseek Ahmed, Rakesh Rawat, Vijay Pratap, HC Sunil Pandey, Udai Ram, Cts Rahul, Sikander, and Raj Kumar under the supervision of DCP Madhur Verma and over all guidance of Addl.CP K.K. Vyas was constituted to nab the criminals. A trap was laid and at about 12:15PM, Sanjay Kumar Tiwari along with his associate Gaurav Sharma were apprehended at the instance of the informer. From the cursory search of Sanjay Kumar Tiwari and Gaurav Sharma, two mobile phones being used in the crime were recovered.

INTERROGATION and MODUS OPERANDI: -

       Both the accused were subjected to intensive interrogation and it was revealed that mastermind of this racket is Sanjay Kumar Tiwari, who is a habitual/professional criminal and has a long criminal history. He is very thorough and meticulous in his approach. He would make intensive research about his targets (politicians or government officials) who had high aspirations and then lure them with temptations of giving tickets, greater role in party or other favours. He would pose as a person of great clout of a national political party (BJP or Congress mainly) or some Ministry and convince the victim that he could arrange their ascendance in the party ranks or get their files/proposals cleared. Such was the confidence and attitude that the victims would actually forward him their credentials and resumes to lobby for them. The victims believed him, got entraped and on enticement, paid him huge amounts in the garb of party donations/election funds. He would never collect the amount in person and instead get it collected through the hired staff employed by his associate Gaurav Sharma. The staff so hired was also unaware of the intentions of the masterminds. Once the employed staff contacted the victims, they would call Sanjay Tiwari or Gaurav Sharma and make the victim talk to them before the victim parted with the money. This way, their (Sanjay Tiwari and Gaurav Sharma) identities were never disclosed to the victims. Such unemployed youths were randomly selected by Gaurav Sharma from the streets/parks. They were befriended and offered fruitful jobs in return for acting at their behest.  

In the present case, accused Sanjay Tiwari impersonated himself as Shri Ram Madhav (Hon’ble National General Secretary, BJP) and Gaurav Sharma impersonated as PA to Shri Ram Madhav and tried to cheat the Minister of Jharkhand on the pretext of party funds for upcoming assembly elections. They had sent one such boy for collecting the money from the Minister.  

Their interrogation has revealed that they have either cheated or attempted to cheat/extort from several other political leaders as well as government officials on fake representations. Accused persons have been taken on police custody remand for verification of these facts.

PROFILE: -

1. Sanjay Kumar Tiwari (40 yrs) is a permanent resident of Faizabad, UP.  He left the studies after 10th class. He is married and has two children from his wedlock.  His father is engaged in building material supply at his village.  In 1999, he came to Delhi and started working as a freelancer poem reciter in All India Radio.  Later on, he worked in print as well as electronic media and carried out sting operations against LPG gas cylinder contractors who were indulged in black marketing and stealing gas from LPG cylinders. He tried to extort money from them, hence he was booked for extortion. Since then, he has been arrested a number of times for his illegal activities.

He disclosed that he has also worked with Shri Tarun Tejpal and as an associate of famous film director Smt. Tanuja Chandra in Mumbai for some months. While working as PA to MP of Arunachal, he hit upon this modus operadi.  

2. Gaurav Sharma (23 yrs) is a permanent resident of Vill Hoshiarpur, Noida and presently residing at Mayur Vihar, Phase-III.  He has studied upto 10th class.  He is unmarried.  His father is engaged in dairy work. He is known to Sanjay Kumar Tiwari since last 3-4 years and had joined him in his illegal activities about 7-8 months back.  He was tasked to recruit the unemployed youths by Sanjay Tiwari.

The details of criminal involvements of Sanjay Kumar Tiwari are as follows:-

1	FIR No.299/05 u/s 385/34 IPC PS Anand Vihar, Delhi ( LPG pilferage sting)
2	FIR No. 76/07 u/s 419/384/468/871 IPC PS C.R. Park. ( LPG pilferage sting)
3	FIR No.180/2007 u/s 419/420/511/384/120B IPC PS Parliament Street (Extortion from MPs over misuse of tribal development fund)
4	FIR No.181/2007 u/s 419/420/511/384/120B IPC PS Parliament Street(Extortion from MPs over misuse of tribal development fund)
5	FIR No.182/2007 u/s 419/420/511/384/120B IPC PS Parliament Street (Extortion from MPs over misuse of tribal development fund)
6	FIR No.207/2007 u/s 419/420/384/120B IPC  PS Chanakyapuri (Extortion from MPs over misuse of tribal development fund)
7	FIR No.163/12 u/s 419/420/468/471/120B IPC PS Crime Brach, Delhi (Impersonation and cheating from NE leaders regarding election expenses)
8	FIR No.77/16 u/s 419/420/471 IPC, PS Parliament Street (Impersonation of national party president and various office bearers of BJP HQ, Ashoka road)
9	FIR No. 152/16 u/s 419/420 IPC, PS Chanakyapuri (Attempt to cheat 10 lacs from Shri Rajen Gohain, Minister of State for Railways)
10	FIR No. 169/16 u/s 419/420/120 B IPC, PS Crime Branch (Attempt to cheat ex-MLA BJP Shri Anil Sharma on pretext of speaking on behalf of Shri Bhaiyyaji Joshi for arranging marriage of poor girls)
11	FIR No.11/17 u/s 170/419/420/511/120B IPC PS-Crime Branch (present case)

In case Sr. No.10 i.e. FIR No.169/16, PS Crime Branch, he was arrested in Oct 2016 by Crime Branch. After coming out of jail in Nov 2016, he again started his nefarious activities and during investigation, he has disclosed of cheating the following political leaders/government officials during this period:-

1. Cheated Rs 50,000/- from Smt. Pramila Rani/Brahma of BJP from Assam impersonating as PA of Minister/Secy. in the Ministry of Doner (Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region).
2. Cheated Rs 50,000/- from Shri Bhika Sole, State President, BJP, Nagaland, while impersonating as PA to National Gen. Secy, BJP on the pretext of party funds.
3. Cheated Rs 10,000/- from Sh. H R Joshan, Ex MLA Congress from Punjab while impersonating as Shri Madhavan, PA to Smt Sonia Gandhi (President, INC) promising him ticket in the forthcoming Punjab Assembly Elections.
4. Cheated Rs 10,000/- on the pretext of contribution for construction of a new building from Sh. Achoba Singh, Ex. Deputy CM Manipur while impersonating as Shri Bhaiyyaji Joshi.
5. Cheated Rs 10,000/- from Sh. P. Tusiang Sang (Parliament Secretary, Meghalaya, Congress) impersonating as PA in the Ministry of Doner.
6. Cheated Rs 5,000/- on the pretext of party fund from Sh. Nilo Rangma (Ex MLA Nagaland, Congress) impersonating as Sh. Madhavan, PA to Smt. Sonia Gandhi (President, INC).
7. Cheated Rs 2,000/- from Sh. K.S. Thanga (Minister in Mizoram Congress) impersonating as PA in the Ministry of Doner.
8. He also claimed to have trapped Mizoram State Secretary of BJP Sh. Sangte on the pretext of providing party funds for upcoming UP elections. Sh Sangte was reluctant to pay, but the accused was apprehended before he could succeed.

He disclosed that recently he has also tried to extort from a Minister in Punjab Shri Madan Mohan Mittal, Shri Vikas Munda (MLA, Jharkhand), Shri Taniya Taga, Shri Tacho and Shri T Jeboha (Arunachal MLAs), Shri CP Patwari (Assam), Shri Phunja Thang (Congress, Manipur), Shri Kharbali (PWD Engineer, Meghalaya), Shri Chauhan (Sikkim) and Shri Ashok Chaudhary (Congress, Bihar) BSP leaders etc. However, his claims are subject to verification during investigation.

In his interrogation, the accused disclosed that in previous govt., he could easily earn money through liasioning work in various ministries. But since this govt. came to power, he was unable to earn through such deals and in desperation, he started indulging in criminal activities to earn money through cheating and extortion.