Man with disabilities poses as fake CBI officer, gets 3 years in jail

A man with a disability has been sentenced to three years in prison for posing as a CBI officer and duping a businessman of ₹50 lakh.

MUMBAI: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Tuesday sentenced a man with disability, who also duped filmmaker Rakesh Roshan, to three years of imprisonment for duping a businessman of ₹50 lakh by posing as a CBI officer.

HT Image

Special judge VP Desai also imposed a fine of ₹5,000 on the accused, Ashwini Kumar Sharma, on charges of cheating, extortion, and impersonation.

Sharma, who became immobile after a road accident, resides with his family in Panipat in Haryana. Through advocate Dilip H Shukla, he sought the high court’s permission on Monday to appear via video conference and gave an undertaking that later he would not claim the judgment to be illegal on the ground that he was physically absent.

“The petitioner is issued with a disability certificate in respect of the head injury wherein it is recorded that he is suffering from 83% disability,” he added while submitting the medical report.

Another accused in the case, Rajesh Rajan, was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to three years imprisonment. The duo was arrested by the CBI in 2011 for allegedly cheating more than 200 people, including filmmaker Rakesh Roshan and businessmen.

Concerning the accident experienced by the accused and the following separation of Sharma’s case from the co-accused, the medical report attached with the petition stated, “Shaking of legs has been stabled, however, right hand still shaking continuously, and right shoulder has difficulty in movement. Ashwini Sharma has been observed with weakness in movement over small distances and hence, helped by his family member. Related to brain working, Ashwini Kumar has hardly been remembering details of any cases against him. However, he recalls that he has cases in the Bombay courts.”

According to the CBI, the complainant Satish Panchariya, director of a textile firm Alka India Pvt Ltd., and his driver were summoned by the agency in connection with a probe against a public servant.

Panchariya informed his friends and family about the summons received from the central agency. Following this, Vikas Kanoi, a friend of Panchariya’s friend, came forward to help him and his brother, who runs a business overseas.

Kanoi then connected the complainant and his brother to Sharma’s co-accused, Rajesh Ranjan, who posed as a CBI officer and assured him that he would manage everything and that they need not worry.

Following this, a meeting was set up with Ranjan’s ‘senior’— Sharma in the CBI office in New Delhi.

Accordingly, Kanoi arranged the flight tickets for Delhi to meet Sharma. Posing as a senior CBI officer, Sharma shouted at the complainant and his brother, stating that he had received several complaints against them. He demanded ₹1 crore in lieu of dropping the complaint against Panchariya. After negotiations, the amount was brought down to ₹50 lakh.

Sharma and Ranjan further assured the brothers that upon payment of the amount, the file would not be moved to Mumbai and would be closed in Delhi. However, Panchariya soon realized that he was constantly chased and threatened by Sharma for payment, and if he did not pay at the earliest, the CBI would drag him into several criminal cases.

The complainant claimed that under mental and psychological pressure and agony, under the impression that the accused were genuine CBI officers, the complainant and his brother paid the demanded amount to the applicant in two installments.

Subsequently, the brothers got to know through media reports that they had been duped by the duo and rushed to the CBI, Anti-Corruption Bureau, along with a written complaint seeking legal action against the accused.

Filmmaker Rakesh Roshan’s money laundering case against Sharma is pending before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court.