E-Paper
‘High-profile’ fraudster held on IB input, U.P. STF lodges case
While his arrest was shown from Vibhuti Khand police station in Lucknow, police didn’t find any formal complaint from any of his victims.
LUCKNOW The Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police has registered a case against ‘high-profile’ fraudster, Sanjay Prasad Rai, who was held from Kanpur railway station on Tuesday. The accused was held based on an input from Intelligence Bureau (IB).
While his arrest was shown from Vibhuti Khand police station in Lucknow, police didn’t find any formal complaint from any of his victims. Therefore, U.P. STF inspector Sachin Kumar stepped in and filed a case against Rai late on Tuesday (April 25) night.
Rai allegedly duped his targets by posing as a person in close contact with BJP’s top leadership and RSS office bearers. He even used morphed pictures to hoodwink his clients.
The FIR against him has been registered under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (fraud), 467 (forging documents), 468 (using forged documents for cheating purposes), and 469 (forgery to harm reputation), and section 66D (impersonating using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act for using his morphed pictures with several Union ministers and RSS office bearers.
The inspector mentioned in the FIR that there was an input from the IB that Sanjay Prasad Rai is involved in extorting money and procuring money through fraudulent means for the past many years. The FIR added that the accused, who served as the director of Kandla Energy and Chemicals Limited, defaulted on an SBI loan. He had been operating from Delhi and Ghazipur (Uttar Pradesh) for the past few years. Rai used his morphed photographs with senior BJP leaders on social media and allegedly procured crores of rupees from different people under the pretext of getting their work done, said sources.
The primary investigation has revealed that he received ₹6 crore in two installments in January earlier this year, according to the STF inspector. Sources said he procured ₹6 crore from a Delhi-based industrialist for ‘managing’ action by Enforcement Directorate against him. The accused even spread rumours in Ghazipur that he would contest Lok Sabha elections from there in place of senior BJP leader Manoj Sinha in 2024.
Another STF source said that the fraudster had even named his WiFi account as ‘Prime Minister residence’ at his house in Delhi, claiming that he worked in association with the PMO. He has a bungalow in Delhi’s Safardarganj locality and maintained a high-profile lifestyle. He even operated an NGO ‘Sanjay for Youth’, whose tagline reads -- ‘making the entire Ghazipur district of U.P. self-employed’.
