The Hindu : New Delhi News : Man arrested for duping

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 23, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Man arrested for duping

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JUNE 22. A 28-year-old man has been arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi police for allegedly duping several persons in the name of getting shops allotted to them at Metro rail stations here in the Capital. According to the police, he had been duping people on this pretext for the past 18 months.

According to the police, the Chief Urban Planner (Delhi Metro), K. Srinath, complained to the police that an individual had approached him claiming that he had managed to get a shop allotted in his name at Tis Hazari Metro rail station. The individual also told Mr. Srinath that he had got the allotment from an authorised agent of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Mr. Srinath told him that the DMRC had never allotted shops in such a manner and that there were no agents authorised by the company. A case was registered at the Lodhi Colony police station and investigations handed over to the Anti-Forgery Section of the EOW. Following investigations, the police arrested Pradeep Sharma, a resident of Rewari in Haryana, from his residence on Saturday. He was remanded to three-day police custody.

It came to light that Pradeep, son of a retired Delhi police constable Bhim Singh, had begun duping people since 2002. "He used to gain the confidence of people known to him by providing them forged letters, purportedly issued by the DMRC, allowing them to open a shop on the premises of Tis Hazari Metro rail station," said the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW), Kamal Kant Vyas. So far the police have learnt that he had duped about 15 people of a total of Rs. 3 lakhs in the name of providing them allotment papers for the shop.

The police said the number of his victims could be more. They are also trying to find out if someone else was helping him. "It is difficult for him to prepare forged allotment letters all by himself. Somebody may have been advising him," said Mr. Vyas.

In order to convince people that "he knew the right people in the right places", Pradeep also used to pose as a reporter of "Star News Line" channel. However, the police are yet to recover the fake identity card which he was using. They are also trying to find out if he used to show some forged letter of authority, purportedly given to him by the DMRC, to his victims.

Pradeep, a school dropout, had been working as a marble contractor-cum-mason. He and his father are also accused in another case of cheating and forgery. The case pertained to some kind of document related fraud. Further investigations in the case are on.

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