In a bid to caution public about fraudsters duping people by convincing them about their links with state leaders, union minister and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal took to social media and termed it a ‘political conspiracy’ of her rivals to defame her.
Her Facebook post updated on Saturday afternoon read
This comes in the backdrop of a case registered here in Budhlada on Wednesday last week, when four persons were booked and later arrested for charging money from locals in lieu of getting them interest free loans through Harsimrat’s office.
Speaking to HT, SHO Dalbeer Singh said that the accused identified as Ram Singh, Mandeep Kaur, Jagseer Singh and Harendra Singh, used to charge money from people for filling up their forms to avail interest free loans after the form gets submitted in Harsimrat’s office in Mansa.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking to HT, SHO Dalbeer Singh said that the accused identified as Ram Singh, Mandeep Kaur, Jagseer Singh and Harendra Singh, used to charge money from people for filling up their forms to avail interest free loans after the form gets submitted in Harsimrat’s office in Mansa.
{{/usCountry}}“They used to charge about `300-400 for each form and till now have duped about 300 people. The accused have been booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 120B,” the SHO said.
The SHO further said that the conmen often catch their prey by citing government schemes like mudra scheme and other programmes which offer monetary assistance to setup private entrepreneurship.
Reacting to Hasimrat’s ‘political conspiracy’ statement, AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira termed it a ‘willful understanding’ between SAD leaders and conmen. “Her claims of warning the fraudsters is just a hogwash as even in the past SAD leaders have shared frames with druglords and criminals. If she is so concerned about it why doesn’t she get them arrested.”
This is not an isolated incident, as in February HT had highlighted as how conmen have effectively exploited their alleged proximity to state leaders by uploading their photographs with leaders and then duping people on the promise of getting them government jobs and profits in real estate investment.