Newsroom24x7 Staff

New Delhi: The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has busted a racket of fake police officials and public prosecutors, who were involved in extortion from innocent prominent persons all over India on the pretext of settlement against non-bailable warrants issued by the Courts in cases filed by the Reserve Bank of India.

Four accused persons, including the kingpin of the racket, have been arrested. These persons had tried to extort money from a prominent international dancer by telling her that she was about to be arrested. The accused had opened bank accounts using fake IDs and were withdrawing the money extorted from the victims from different ATMs in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. With the arrest of accused persons, a case (FIR No. 80/2016 under Sections 419/170/384/ 385/420/468/471/120-B of Indian penal Code (IPC), has been registered by the Crime Branch Police Station in Delhi. Now the victims are being contacted by the Police for their version. The bank account details of accused persons are also being checked and analysed

Those arrested in this case are Sandeep @ Dev @ Gulshan (26), son of Shatrughan and resident of H. No.A-2/234, Harsh Vihar, Delhi; Sanjay Pandey (28), son of Inder Dev Pandey and resident of B-320, Gharolli Dairy Colony, Mayur Vihar Phase-III, Delhi; Dharmender (20), son of Rajender Singh, resident of H. No. RC-851, Lokpriya Vihar Colony, Gali No. 4, near National Public School, Khoda Colony, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh; Sultan @ Imran (24), son of Mohd. Furkan, resident of 3rd floor, Courier Wali Building at Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. Sultan’s permanent address is Ali Nagar village in Dharmpur Tehsil under Nataur Police Station in Bijnaur district of UP.

The Crime Branch had received a complaint from a prominent dancer. In the complaint, it was alleged that a person had called her up introducing himself as Delhi Police sub-inspector Rajvir Singh from the Warrant Cell, Tis Hazari Court. He stated that he had a warrant of arrest for her and she would be arrested on the basis of that warrant. The caller told her to contact Radhe Shyam Verma, a lawyer who was dealing with this case. WEhen the complainant contacted this lawyer he told her that he was a Public Prosecutor.

Rajvir Singh, who was posing as a police sub-inspector, told the complainant that she owed Rs. 67,051/- to RBI and hence a case had been filed by RBI against her; and she would be arrested in this case. The complainant went to the Tis Hazari Courts and on checking about the alleged case, found that no such case had come up before the court. After this, when the alleged caller and lawyer could not be contacted by her on their respective phone numbers, she lodged a complaint with the police.

Investigation into this case was taken up by SER/Crime Branch. During investigation of the case, efforts were made by the Police to nab the accused by mounting technical surveillance relying on information obtained from secret informers. In the meanwhile, the Police came to know that one V.P. Tripathi resident of Gorakhpur had been cheated in a similar manner. When the bank account details and phone details of the culrpits in this case were analyzed, the Police found that the bank accounts and mobile numbers of the accused persons were procured against fake identities for the purpose of extortion. The police had a breakthrough in this case when crucial information was received in SER/Crime Branch on 25 May 2016.

Acting on the tip off, a team led by ACP Ishwar Singh and comprising of Inspector Atul Tyagi, SIs Sanjay Kumar, Nagender Singh, HCs Virender, Hemender, Sandeep,Brijpal and Ct. Rakesh under the supervision of DCP Bhisham Singh apprehended one Sanjay Pandey of Mayur Vihar in Delhi. During interrogation, he disclosed that he used to open bank accounts on fake/forged ID’s and provided or sold these bank accounts against payment of good amount of money to the accused who were involved in the extortion racket. Sanjay was later arrested.

On Sanjay’s instance, two more accused Dharmender and Sultan,m who had purchased the bank accounts from sanjay, were arrested on 27 May 2016. These two persons had delivered these accounts to the main accused and kingpin of the racket Sandeep Kumar @ Dev @ Gulshan on commission basis and also aided him in commission of offence. The main culprit Sandeep Kumar @ Dev @ Gulshan was finally arrested by the Police from Harsh Vihar in Delhi after a chase.

Sandeep @ Dev @ Gulshan belongs to a lower middle class family presently residing at Harsh Vihar in Delhi. His father works in a screen printing unit and he is the second youngest among four brothers. He has studied upto class 10th and was married last year. Earlier, he has worked in promotional events of several companies and presently assists his younger brother in repairing air conditioners. He was not satisfied with his meagre earnings and thus came up with the plan to extort money from well to do people.

In January 2012, he met with a road accident in East Delhi. In this connection an FIR was registered and during proceedings of this case he came in contact with police and court working. He procured bank accounts and SIM cards on fake ID’s from his co-accused and obtained details of prospective victims from internet by searching for government officials. He himself posed as a police official as well as lawyer/Public Prosecutor while extorting money from victims by tqlking of fake and false court cases.

The other accused, Sanjay Pandey also belongs to a lower middle class family presently residing in Mayur Vihar in Delhi. He too has studied up to class 10th but has also done a course in Graphic Designing. He is eldest of two brothers and one sister. He, along with his father, runs a photocopy shop in Mayur Vihar where he also makes Aadhar cards, Voter I-cards and PAN cards for customers. Not content with his earnings, Sanjay Pandey started preparing forged documents such as Voter I-cards and using these fake ID’s. He further procured PAN cards and with help of these documents, he opened accounts in several banksand provided these to those arrested in this case.

Accused Dharmender also from a lower middle class family, has been residing in Khoda Colony in Ghaziabad. He is pursuing BA Final year from Delhi University’s School of Correspondence.He is eldest of two brothers and one sister. His father runs a cycle puncture repair shop in Khoda Colony and his mother works as a domestic help. He assisted in commission of offence in present case by liaising between accused Sanjay Pandey and Sandeep @ Dev. He procured bank accounts from accused Sanjay Pandey and provided these to Sandeep @ Dev through co-accused Sultan and received handsome commission of 10%-15% in each transaction. He also arranges such bank accounts for others involved in insurance related crimes.

Sultan @ Arman, who also comes from a similar background as the other accused, is presently residing in Ghaziabad in UP. He has studied upto class 10th. He is elder of two brothers. His father is an auto driver. Sultan helps his father by driving his auto on a part time basis.