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Ayodhya conman had cheques worth ₹291 crore during his arrest: STF
By the time he was arrested, Chaudhary had embezzled several crores of rupees by using his fake credentials, the officials added.
High-profile conman Anoop Chaudhary had signed cheques worth ₹291 crore in his pockets when he was arrested by UP Special Task Force (STF) from a circuit house in Ayodhya on Monday night, said senior STF officials privy to the investigation.
Disguising himself as an official of the Ministry of Railways, and sometimes as a member of the Food Corporation of India, Chaudhary had taken many VVIPs, businessmen and bureaucrats, across states, on a ride over the last six years, they added.
The STF officials said he used doctored pictures of him posing with several senior leaders of the BJP to show others his ‘immense’ political clout. They said he not only enjoyed VVIP protocols and government accommodations during his visits to different states but had also secured the services of a police gunner deployed to him by the Ghaziabad Police Commissionerate.
By the time he was arrested, Chaudhary had embezzled several crores of rupees by using his fake credentials, the officials added.
“Chaudhary had appointed one Srinivas Narala as his officer on special duty, who would inform officials concerned about the protocol for Chaudhary. For that, they had created a letterhead that was used to send emails to take advantage of the protocol facility,” said STF additional superintendent of police (ASP) Satya Sen.
Another STF official said Anoop Chaudhary, a native of Raunahi in Ayodhya, once ran a Ponzi scheme firm with some of his aides from Uttarakhand and duped several on the pretext of doubling their invested amounts in a few months and providing them plots at cheap rates. He said the accused procured huge wealth through this Ponzi scheme fraud, following which several FIRs in UP’s Bareilly and Amroha and Uttarakhand’s Udhamsinghnagar were lodged. A reward of ₹15,000 was declared for his arrest by the Udhamsinghnagar police, he added.
“A businessman from Jaipur, Rajasthan Rakesh Kumar Khandelwal had accused Chaudhary of duping him of ₹58 lakh on the pretext of helping him through his political clout. The CBI’s Anti-Corruption Bureau had investigated the matter after registering an FIR against Chaudhary on November 27, 2019, and filed a chargesheet on December 22, 2020,” he said.
“Also, the accused allegedly cheated Prayagraj businessman Vipin Mishra of ₹6 crore by promising to get a business loan worth ₹250 crore sanctioned for him. An FIR against him was lodged at the Naini police station of Prayagraj on August 9 earlier this year. Similarly, he stole ₹43 lakh from his family friend Ravi Roz regarding which an FIR was registered at Lucknow’s Vikas Nagar police station on April 9, 2019,” the STF official said while sharing Chaudhary’s criminal history. A total of ten criminal cases were lodged against him between 2019 and 2023, he added.
The circuit house in Ayodhya, from where Chaudhary was arrested, was booked for him on the directions of a local city magistrate after he approached the local administration posing as a member of the Railways Ministry.
STF inspector Pramod Kumar Verma lodged the recent FIR against Chaudhary and his aide Feroz Alam, who worked as his driver, at Cantt police station of Ayodhya on Monday after his arrest. He mentioned in his complaint that as many as 14 signed cheques worth ₹291 crore were recovered from him. HT has a copy of the FIR registered by the Ayodhya police.
An STF official said two cheques worth ₹55 crore each and three of ₹45 crore each were recovered from him. “Among the 14 cheques recovered, two, of ₹10 crore and ₹ 9 crore, were issued to him by one Siddartha Gupta,” he added.
He further stated the investigation revealed that Chaudhary had visited Chennai where he enjoyed the same official protocol.
