Gardener employed at Delhi MCD office arrested for posing as CMO officer, duping patients

The suspect had allegedly found a letter from the CM office at the MCD office’s dak (post) section, which he used to forge blank letters.

A 27-year-old employed as a gardener at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in Karol Bagh has been arrested for allegedly cheating patients who could not afford treatment and private hospitals in Delhi by posing as a government officer at the chief minister’s office (CMO). Police found that the suspect had made multiple calls posing as an officer from the MCD office where he worked and he also forged letters with the official letterhead, logos and signatures of the CMO.

The suspect, arrested from Tagore Garden in west Delhi on Thursday, had been carrying out the fraud for at least the last five or six months. (Pixabay/Representative)

The suspect, arrested from Tagore Garden in west Delhi on Thursday, had been carrying out the fraud for at least the last five or six months. During the interrogation, the police learnt that, a few months ago, the suspect had found a letter from the chief minister’s office at the MCD office’s dak (post) section, which he used to forge blank letters with the official letterhead.

He would then tell patients he would help them get treated for a fee. “He used to target the patients outside private hospitals under the EWS category. In return, he took ₹5,000 from every patient,” said DCP (north) Raja Banthia.

“In the last one and a half months, he has written five such fake letters to five hospitals —Action Balaji (Pashchim Vihar), Maharaja Agrasen (Punjabi Bagh), BLK Max (Karol Bagh), Mata Chanan Devi (Janakpuri) and Sir Gangaram Hospital (Old Rajinder Nagar),” Banthia added.

The matter came to light last month after a multispeciality hospital in Delhi, after finding a request for treatment suspicious, contacted the CMO. The officer on special duty (OSD) to Delhi CM Rekha Gupta then submitted a complaint, the police said.

“The CM office had received a mail from Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, Delhi, to get confirmation about a letterhead bearing the signatures of Anil Aggarwal, officer-incharge at the CMO in Delhi. The hospital had received a request letter for the treatment of a patient,” said a senior police officer, asking not to be named.

The hospital administration alleged that a man, claiming he was posted at the CMO, also called them and directed them to treat the patient under the economically weaker sections (EWS) category, police said.

However, the letter from the CM’s office submitted in this case had spelling mistakes, varying font sizes and lacked text alignment. This made the hospital suspicious of the man’s claims.

After a case was lodged, police first traced the patient and questioned them on the letter. The senior officer quoted above said, “He told us that his wife met a senior officer named ‘Sonu’ who promised to help the family with their medical treatment and asked for ₹5,000. They believed that he was a senior government officer.”

The investigators obtained the number of the accused from the couple and analysed the suspect’s call detail records.

DCP Banthia said, “We identified the person and his address was found in Jhajjar. Technical surveillance was mounted. We found that the accused was active in Karol Bagh. We found he was calling from an MCD office in that area. A team was sent on October 29 but during the raid, he managed to escape.”

However, police were able to seize his bag and found a fake MCD identity card, several letters with the official letterhead, and other documents.

“We later found he was active in Double Storey, Tagore Garden. After continuous efforts of the police team, on Thursday, the police team apprehended accused Sonu,” Banthia said.

A senior officer posted at CM’s office told HT, “We received complaint from one hospital on mail and immediately alerted the police to take action since it was suspected that more public persons could be duped. We coordinated with them and thankfully, the accused has been arrested.”