Man posing as ED officer held for duping Barnala residents

HE FACES TWO OTHER CASES FOR ALLEGEDLY DUPING A PLY SHOP OWNER AND AN AC EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER OF ₹5 LAKH & ₹3.3 LAKH

BARNALA : Police have booked Manjit Singh Rattu for duping a local resident, Jasbir Singh, of ₹5 lakh on the pretext of sending him abroad. Rattu also faces two other cases for allegedly duping a ply shop owner and an air-conditioning equipment supplier of ₹5 lakh and ₹3.3 lakh, respectively.

To carry out his frauds, Rattu, who had been arrested previously, variously posed as an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer, or as the owner of Rachna Publishers and a newspaper he called, Malwa Gazette.

A local ply and glass dealer, Pawan Kumar said, “Rattu claimed that he was from the ED and that they planned to open an office in Barnala. For this, he made purchases from us and we raised eight invoices. Whenever we asked for payment, he delayed it by saying that GST was not payable on items purchased by the ED and he would send a certificate for it.”

He added, “On my insistence, he issued a ₹3 lakh cheque which bounced.

An AC dealer Lal Bahadur said, “Initially he posed as an inspector with ED, but later he took invoices in the name of Rachna Publishers. We have not got any payment.” A carpenter also claimed unpaid bills of ₹1.6 lakh.

DSP (investigation) Surjit Singh Dhanoa said, “We have arrested Rattu and his accomplice Bhola Singh. Rattu is in police remand, while Bhola is in judicial remand.”

A hotelier Narinder Kumar said, “He stayed in our hotel for two weeks and ran up a bill of ₹68,000. He issued us a cheque drawn on the Central Bank of India, Barnala, but we did not it present it to the bank.”

SSP Harjeet Singh said, “Rattu is a proclaimed offender under the jurisdiction of the Jalandhar Police Commissionerate.

Prima facie, Malwa Gazette, the newspaper which he claims to be running, is not registered anywhere.” Enforcement directorate joint director Girish Bali could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.