The Hindu : New Delhi News : Cheats' gang busted, five arrested

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 18, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Cheats' gang busted, five arrested

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 17. Five persons, who allegedly used to duped people of huge amount of money by posing as officials from the enforcement branch of private power distribution company, NDPL, and threatening to slap huge fines for using "tampered meters", have been arrested by the North Delhi police. One of the accused was cousin of a sub-contractor of the firm which had been authorised to install electric meters of the subscribers.

According to the police, two men came to the house of Rohit Aggarwal, a resident of Roop Nagar in North Delhi, around 1 p.m. on Wednesday. They told him that they were from the enforcement branch of NDPL and that they had come to check if their meters were tampered. The two men then left and returned around 2 p.m. along with three more persons.

They pretended to check electric meters of five houses in the locality and told the residents that all of them had been tampered. They then asked them either to pay Rs. 5 lakhs and more as fine or "settle the matter" by paying them Rs. 50,000 for each meter. Mr. Aggarwal and his neighbours felt something fishy about the whole affair. They demanded identity proofs from the men upon which they produced identity cards, which purportedly showed them as employees of NPDL.

In the meantime, however, one of Mr. Aggarwal's neighbours contacted NDPL and confirmed that the company had not sent anybody for checking meters. The residents then detained all five men and informed the police.

Those arrested have been identified as Rajesh, Anoop Singh, Ashok Kumar, Manoj Kumar and Bhikam Singh. The identity cards recovered from them were fake. Interrogation of the accused revealed that Manoj was a sub-contractor for a firm which the NDPL had authorised to install meters. Bhikam, who also knew Manoj, came in contact with Subhash, an electrician, who used to pass on information about tampered meters in various localities. The gang then used to reach the place and try and extort money by threatening to huge fines.

Further investigations in the case are on.

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