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Man poses as Nadda’s PA in bid to dupe BJP MLAs, held: Police
A man from Ahmedabad has been arrested for allegedly trying to dupe BJP legislators by impersonating JP Nadda's personal assistant.
A man from Ahmedabad has been arrested for allegedly attempting to dupe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators by demanding money for a cabinet berth in Maharashtra government while impersonating party president JP Nadda’s personal assistant, Nagpur police said on Wednesday.
The accused has been identified as Neeraj Singh Rathod, a resident of Morbi in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad district, police said.
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The accused had contacted four Maharashtra legislators — Vikas Kumbhare (Central Nagpur), Tekchand Savarkar (Kamptee), Tanaji Mutkule (Hingoli) and Narayan Kuche (Badnapur) —offering them cabinet posts in Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government and demanded lakhs of rupees, a senior police officer said.
The accused had allegedly also called a Nagaland legislator and another in Goa, the officer added, requesting anonymity.
“We are investigating whether any other persons are involved in the racket,” said Nagpur City police commissioner Amitesh Kumar. “The accused was arrested from Gujarat on Tuesday and brought to Nagpur today (Wednesday).”
The incident came to light after Kumbhare filed a police complaint against Rathod, who allegedly contacted the BJP legislator from Central Nagpur at least four times and offered him urban development minister’s post in the Maharashtra cabinet, police said, adding that the accused introduced himself to the MLA as Nadda’s personal assistant.
Based on the MLA’s complaint, a case has been registered at the Kotwali police station in Nagpur under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Kumar said.
“We will try to get more details from Rathod during his interrogation,” he said. “We are also probing about other victims of the fraudster.”
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Kotwali police station in-charge Mukund Thakre said all four legislators have maintained that they did not pay money to the conman. However, people familiar with the matter, requesting anonymity, said that one of the MLAs paid some advance money to Rathod.
The incident comes barely two months after another conman Kiran Patel, also from Gujarat, was arrested for impersonating an official of the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) during a trip to Jammu and Kashmir.
