Police arrest man who posed as Ram Madhav, Bhaiyyaji Joshi

DUPED AT LEAST SEVEN POLITICIANS

HE CHEATED political leaders in Delhi by posing as BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi, and the personal assistant to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. He successfully defrauded seven political leaders, and tried to swindle 10 others.

But his luck ran out, and 39year-old conman Sanjay Kumar Tiwari, along with an associate, was arrested by Delhi Police on January 25 from near ITO.

A Class X graduate, Tiwari came to Delhi in 1999 and started working as a freelancer with All India Radio. He worked with various media organisations, where he learned how to conduct sting operations — a skill that would come in handy later, police said.

He has been arrested for trying to cheat Jharkhand revenue minister Amar Kumar Bauri, who had complained that a man posing as Madhav had called him to contribute funds for elections. Police said Tiwari sent a person on his behalf to Jharkhand Bhavan on January 23, who met the minister and asked for funds, but was turned away. Bauri contacted Madhav’s office, which denied any such move. A case was registered with the Crime Branch.

“Theincidentindicatedaprofessional racket. To nab the accused, surveillance was mounted to track rackets with a similar modus operandi. A team led by ACP Sanjay Sehrawat was formed and a trap was laid, which led to the arrest of Tiwari and his associate, Gaurav Sharma,” said JCP (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

Police said after interrogation, it became clear that Tiwari was the mastermind and had a “long criminal history”.

“He would do intensive research about his targets — politiciansandgovernmentofficials.he would lure them with the promise of an election ticket, a greater role in the party or other favours. He usually posed as someone with immense clout in a national politicalparty—mainlythebjpor the Congress,” said Yadav.

Police said the accused would never collect the amount in person but get it done through staffers employed by Sharma.

“Once the staff contacted the ‘target’, they would call Tiwari or Sharma and make the person talk to them before he parted with the money. Their identities were never disclosed to the victims,” said Yadav. Police said 11 cases of cheating and extortion, from 2005 onwards, have been registered against Tiwari.

Praveen Khanna Tiwari at the Police Headquarters, Friday.