Man posing as UP CM’s officer siphons ₹10 lakh for ‘Ram Temple’, held
JAMSHEDPUR: A joint team of Uttar Pradesh (UP) special operation group (SOG), special task force (STF) and Mosaboni police arrested a man on charges of looting senior UP officials of over ₹10 lakh by posing as a special duty officer of UP chief minister in the name of donation for construction of Ram Temple construction, from Mosaboni under East Singhbhum district on Sunday, police said on Monday.
The arrested person was identified as Arvind Mishra.
“Arvind Mishra was arrested by a team of UP police SOG and STF Sunday on charges of robbing top UP officials of over ₹10 lakh posing as UP CM’s OSD. He was extorting money in the name of Ram Mandir. He was living here at his in-laws’ place under Mosaboni police station. The UP police took him back late Sunday night,” Surendra Mahato, Mosaboni police station in-charge, said.
As per available information, the UP police team traced Arvind to Kharagpur and Mosaboni through his mobile tower location. Arvind had been arrested earlier in cases of fraud five months ago, but has been living in Mosaboni after his wife got him released on bail recently.
Arvind was extorting money in the name of Ram Mandir...The UP police took him back late Sunday night.
URENDRA MAHATO, Mosaboni police station in-charge
According to the police, he made repeated calls to senior UP officials from Mosaboni by posing as the UP CM’s OSD and duped Varanasi district magistrate of ₹1 lakh. Arvind also confessed to have collected over ₹10 lakh from many other ADM and SDM rank officers, officials said.
However, his run came to an end after he allegedly made such extortion calls to superintendents of police of Gonda and Kaushambi recently. When both the IPS officers enquired with the office, it came to fore that there was no officer named
Arvind Mishra in the UP CMO, following which four teams were immediately rushed to different states and a team came to Jharkhand.
During investigation, the UP police found that Arvind was getting the duped money transferred into his account in Punjab and Sindh Banks in Meerut, but was withdrawing it in Kharagpur.
The police team reached Kharagpur on February 16 and started monitoring his activities based on mobile tower locations.