Man duping ministers, MLAs for years lands in STF net

LUCKNOW:A man had, who duped ministers, senior government officials and contractors over phone across several states for over a decade, was arrested by a Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in Jharkhand on Sunday.

The accused used to dupe people by impersonating as senior official, district magistrate or commissioner over the phone. He is also accused of impersonating as a chief minister to demand money from a minister.

Confirming the arrest, inspector general (IG) STF Amitabh Yash said, “Our team has arrested one Ranjan Kumar from Singhbhum, Jharkhand. He is accused in several cases of impersonation and fraud in different states. Last year, he called a constructor posing as chairman of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) after which we were on lookout for him.”

A native of Gaya in Bihar, Ranjan had been duping people over phone calls for almost 12 years. In 2008, he posed as the then CM of Jharkhand Madhu Koda and called Arjun Munda

who was a minister and asked latter to deposit Rs 40 lakh in a account, according to the STF.

In 2010 and 2011, he posed as district magistrates of 10 different districts of Bihar to dupe various officials. The accused used to ask officials to deposit money into a bank account. The bank account usually was registered with false identity.

Once the money was deposited he used to withdraw it. In 2011, UP police arrested two of his gang members but Ranjan managed to evade arrest.

“He has also duped people in several states and have over 14 cases lodged against him for fraud and impersonation,” said the officer.

Ranjan, according to officials, used to learn about the officer he was going to impersonate as and the one he was going to dupe. He has very nice understanding of the functioning of various government departments and duties of officials.

He started with duping people of small amounts but progressed later and began demanding large sums of money over the years. His hits became frequent and of large value.

In January this year, he called an engineer of UPRNN (Uttar Pradesh Rajkiye Nirman Nigam) posing as his senior and demanded money. He attempted to dupe several contractors in UP by posing as senior officials. In February, the accused called four MLAs of Madhya Pradesh and demanded cash in name of the governor.

The STF team will bring the accused to UP on transit remand for further investigation.