Imposter arrested for duping job-seekers, local politicians

The Delhi Police Crime Branch has apprehended a 43-year-old man, who allegedly posed as an MP and duped parents of several youths on the pretext of providing their wards with jobs in the Railways and the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The police said the accused also duped proprietors of several companies, promising lucrative business contracts, and local politicians by luring them of plum posts in various parties.

The police said the accused, identified as Praveen Kumar Singh, a resident of Uttam Nagar, was arrested from outside the security check gate of the IGI Airport's domestic terminal. 

One Harsh Dev Tiwari, a resident of UP, had lodged a police complaint against Singh. In the complaint, Tiwari alleged that one Rajkumar, a commercial clerk at the Mughal Sarai Railway Station, said he knew a relative of the then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who could help him get a job in Group D (Railways).

Rajkumar introduced Tiwari to Singh, the kingpin of the gang, at Baroda House in New Delhi. Assuring him of job in the Railways, Singh not only took Rs 2.5 lakh from Tiwari, but also told him that he could even help his relatives get employed if they paid the like amount. Tiwari collected Rs 2.5 lakh each from nine of his relatives and gave it to Singh, police said. The accused allegedly sent a fake letter, issued by the Railway Recruitment Board, Kolkata, to the victims, asking them to come for a medical test. But on reaching Kolkata, they realised that they had been cheated, police said.

“The police had received several complaints, wherein the accused had duped people using a similar modus operandi. Singh, who was on the run for the past five years, frequently changed his addresses and mobile numbers,” said a police official.

Singh told the police that he wore a white khadi dress to get the look of an MP and lure people.  The police are trying to apprehend his associates. The police are verifying Singh's bank account transactions, running into crores of rupees. Besides, they are probing the role of his family members, who helped him accumulate several properties worth crores of rupees. The role of local political leaders, belonging to various parties, who were on his payroll, was also being probed, said a police official.