Conmen posing as Kishor, aides duped Cong MLAs, others of ₹5 cr

LUDHIANA : The swindlers posing as poll strategist Prashant Kishor, principal adviser to Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, and his aides duped Congress MLAs and other political leaders of at least Rs 5 crore by promising them tickets in the upcoming state assembly elections, police said.

Also, they are members of Shiv Sena (Suryavanshi), a Shiv Sena (Thackeray) splinter group. Two of the accused, Rakesh Kumar Bhasin, 48 and Rajat Kumar Raja, 26, were arrested by the Ludhiana police from a hotel near Jalandhar on Thursday. Their accomplice and gang kingpin Gaurav Sharma is on the run.

However, the police did not reveal the names of the leaders who gave then money.

Rakesh Bhasin, who enjoys security provided by the Punjab government following threats from extremists, is all India president of the Shiv Sena (Suryavanshi) and Rajat Kumar is secretary of the organisation.

Four gunmen have been attached with Bhasin.

The accused duped two leaders in Sangrur, a former MLA in Batala, and a former mayor in Jalandhar. They also tried to defraud a Ludhiana MLA, it is learnt.

Ludhiana joint commissioner of police (rural) Sachin Gupta said the accused have no links with Kishor. He added that Rakesh used to pose as an MLA from Rajasthan, Bihar or Haryana, while Rajat acted as his personal assistant.

Since Rakesh had security, people would easily get fooled. Rakesh and Rajat used to approach political leaders, MLAs, former MLAs and other ticket aspirants of different political parties.

Then would make them talk to Gaurav Sharma who would impersonate as Kishor. They also duped people in Rajasthan, Bihar and Haryana too, the official claimed.

“Gaurav Sharma also has connections with international smugglers who push drugs into India,” he said.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (city 2) Jaskiranjit Singh Teja said that Gaurav has been involved in frauds, cybercrime and drug peddling in the past four years and is already five criminal cases. The other accused joined him a year ago, he added.

THE ACCUSED ARE MEMBERS OF A SPLINTER GROUP OF SHIV SENA (THACKERAY), GANG KINGPIN IS ON THE RUN