The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Man claiming to be Sonia’s secretary held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 24, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Man claiming to be Sonia’s secretary held

Staff Reporter

He had promised help to a city doctor

The accused, a native of Chennai, is a resident of Delhi
The police say he has cheated several people

Bangalore: A man, who claimed to be the personal secretary of Sonia Gandhi, AICC president, was arrested by the Sadashivanagar police on Friday.

Speaking to presspersons here, B.N.S. Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), said that the accused, Gunashekhar Pillai, a native of Saligrama, Chennai, was a resident of New Delhi. He said that Pillai was an inter-State impostor, who had cheated several people. He was fluent in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

Mr. Reddy said that Pillai was introduced to Appaji Gowda, a doctor from Bangalore, by Rajashekhar Reddy, a resident of Hyderabad. Appaji Gowda, a native of Sathnur, Ramanagara district, reportedly told Pillai his plan of opening a de-addiction centre in Jayanagar.

Pillai promised to speak to Ms. Sonia Gandhi and get some funds sanctioned from the Union Government for the de-addiction centre.

Mr. Reddy said that Dr. Gowda believed Pillai and wanted him to come to Bangalore.

He bought flight tickets for Pillai, who landed in the city on Thursday. He had even booked a room for Pillai a guesthouse in Sadashivanagar. Dr. Gowda, who wanted to discuss certain things with Pillai, called him for a breakfast meeting on Friday. He went to Sathnur MLA D.K. Shivakumar, who was keen to meet Pillai. Mr. Shivakumar, after speaking to Pillai for a while, suspected foul play. He contacted the Sadashivanagar police station and asked them to investigate. He reportedly called New Delhi and spoke to the original Shekhar Pillai, Sonia Gandhi’s personal secretary. Meanwhile, Dr. Gowda filed a complaint against the impostor with the Sadashivanagar police, who arrested him.

Mr. Reddy said that during interrogation, Pillai admitted he was not Shekhar Pillai and was just trying to make some quick money by posing as Ms. Sonia Gandhi’s personal secretary.

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