Fake RAW ‘officer’ held for fraud, money laundering in Greater Noida; fooled judge wife

The accused's wife, a judge in a neighbouring state, only learnt the truth when the UP STF contacted he invoked her position during questioning.

A 33-year-old man who allegedly lived a life of deception -- as a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer and an army major — was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in Greater Noida on Tuesday for running shell companies, laundering money and securing homes through a web of forged identities.

Sunit Kumar allegedly used his fabricated designations to secure more than 17 rental flats over the past 18 months. (HT Photo)

What startled investigators most was not the scale of the impersonation but the fact that even his wife, a judge in a neighbouring state, believed he was with the country’s premier intelligence agency. She learnt the truth only when the STF contacted her on Tuesday, upon Kumar invoking her position during questioning.

According to investigators, the man, Sunit Kumar of Paramount Golf Foreste in Surajpur, had been hopping rental flats across Greater Noida for more than a year while posing as an intelligence operative. He is originally from Vaishali, Bihar.

“After receiving complaints, a team from UPSTF was dispatched to Paramount Golf Foreste and Kumar was called to the UPSTF Noida office in Surajpur,” said UPSTF in a statement.

“He did his clinical physiology from Raipur. That was his only real credential,” said Raj Kumar Mishra, additional superintendent of police, UPSTF.

Police said Kumar’s façade began to crack when he repeatedly threatened STF personnel during questioning, declaring, “My wife is a judicial officer” and “You are not following protocol with a central agency officer”.

Alarmed, STF officers contacted his wife and that was when she learned, for the first time, that her husband was neither with RAW nor the army. “Once we verified his profile with RAW, the truth came out and he was arrested,” said Mishra.

“She was shocked. They married about a year ago, and he had told her he worked with a central intelligence agency,” Mishra said. “Verification becomes difficult when someone claims to be with RAW. His family members, including his mother and a brother he falsely described as an Army lieutenant, were aware of his fabricated profile.”

Kumar allegedly used his fabricated designations to secure more than 17 rental flats over the past 18 months. “Whenever landlords asked for police verification, he produced fake IDs and said he was on a “secret mission”,” a senior officer said. At one flat he claimed to be an army major; at another he handed over a forged Delhi Police NOC.

STF officials said the elaborate masquerade was not for prestige alone. He used these multiple rented addresses to open bank accounts for shell companies that he operated with his cousin. “He rotated money between accounts to show inflated profits in a company he had hoped to list for an IPO,” Mishra said. Two accounts holding ₹81 lakh have been seized so far.

From his possession, police recovered fake identity cards — a Cabinet Secretariat and Election Commission IDs — five PAN cards, three voter IDs, 17 rent agreements, 20 chequebooks, eight bank cards, three laptops, three tablets and other documents. Investigators are now scanning his devices to trace the money trail. “He claims the money came from family. We are verifying,” an officer said, adding that his cousin is likely to be named as a co-accused.

A case under relevant sections of cheating, impersonation, forgery and IT Act provisions has been registered at Surajpur police station. The name of his wife has been withheld as she is a serving judge.