News : Gang posing as IAS officers dupe youths

It was a master stroke by a gang of fraudsters. The special operations group (SOG) has busted a gang, whose members posed as IAS
officers, roamed around in Ambassadors with beacon lights, conducted fake exams for Hindustan Petroleum, excise, education and transport departments and even deposited monthly salary in aspirants' accounts to win their faith.

The gang duped a number of youths of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of getting them jobs. The SOG has arrested a member of the gang, while the kingpin and others are still at large.

According to the police, the accused has been identified as Brajraj Singh (24), a resident of Shrimadhopur in Sikar district. The main culprit Sant Kumar alias Satya Narayan is still absconding. Brajraj and Sant Kumar along with the other gang members used to take rented accommodation in various areas of the city and pose themselves as IAS officers.

"Sant Kumar rented an accommodation in Sanjay Colony near RPA Road. He would leave his home every morning in an Ambassador, in a white dress and would return in the evening. Soon, he gave the impression to the neighbours that he was a vigilance officer with the excise department," IG (SOG) Umesh Mishra said.

One Kailash Chand Dhobi, a laundryman in the locality, contacted him saying that he was in need of employment. Sant Kumar allegedly assured him a job as a computer operator with education department and demanded Rs 1.20 lakh.

"He also told Chand that there were a total of six vacancies with the department, and asked him to bring his relatives and friends as he assured them jobs after getting the money," Mishra said. Chand brought five more youths---Ramprasad, Chhotu Lal, Narhari Kumar, Suresh and Radheshyam ----to him. To convince them, Sant Kumar brought another accused Brajraj Singh and told them that he had got Kumar a job with the excise department. He showed them fake appointment letter. On this, all of them gave him Rs 60,000 each.

Sant Kumar made them fill up a fake department of personnel form and conducted their exam in a room. He took the answer sheets with him and returned with an appointment letter for the post of lower division clerk with education department. "Then, he opened up bank accounts of all the aspirants and kept depositing Rs 5,000 in each for a few months as salary. To lure them further, he got them enrolled in a computer institute to learn computer applications," Mishra added.

When the six aspirants thought that they had got jobs, they brought 18 more youths to the accused who were duped of lakh of rupees. When the salary stopped coming in, the aspirants got suspicious and confronted Sant Kumar and Brijraj. For some time they kept assuring the youths but later disappeared.

Courtesy:- Times of India