Five held for collecting ‘donations’ fraudulently in Ludhiana spent money on expensive mobiles, branded garments

Accused collected ‘donations' fraudulently on the pretext of using the cash to treat hospitalised patients

A day after five men were arrested for allegedly collecting donations fraudulently on the pretext of using it to treat hospitalised patients, police on Thursday said the accused were duping people for the past one year and spent the money on buying expensive mobile phones, branded garments and shoes.

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The accused have been identified Harpreet alias honey, Karan Singh, his brother Gulshan, Bablu Kumar of Ram Nagar and Kanwarpreet Singh of Chandigarh road. Their accomplices, John Bains, Aman Sharma and Kishan are yet to be arrested. Police said they suspect the involvement of more people.

Police said the accused were arrested when they were collecting donations to fund the treatment of Bhawangurpreet Singh, who is admitted to DMCH, after meeting with a road mishap. When asked, the accused told police that the victim’s family had approached them to collect donations for his treatment. When police approached the patient’s family, they said they had not asked for the accused’s assistance. Moreover, other details except the patient name were wrong.

Police said accused used pictures of hospitalised patients from social networking sites and misused them to collect donations. Police recovered Rs 13,700, posters and pamphlets from their possession.

Staffers of some private hospitals are also involved with the accused in providing pictures and details of patients, police said.

Harpreet Kumar alias Honey of Ambedkar Nagar, who is kingpin of the gang, told cops he is a correspondent with a web news channel. Police have recovered an identity card from his possession issued by the public relations department of Punjab Government. Police are verifying if the id-card is fake.

Assistant sub-inspector Sukhdeep Singh, who is investigating the case, said the accused made three Facebook pages by the name of Sai Foundation, Hand to Hand NGO and Poor Patient Helping Society to pretend they were helping the needy with money and ration. The facebook pages were being operated by Honey and his accomplices John Bains and Aman Sharma, police said.

“The accused usually operated at Rajpura road, Fountain Chowk, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Dugri road and Old Session Chowk with pictures of patients and donation boxes in their hands. They used to collect Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 in cash as donation in one day,” the ASI said.

A case of cheating has been registered under Section 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code against the accused at division number 8 police station.