New Delhi:The master-mind of the gang which had set up a fake website in the name of Prime Minister’s Office had also duped an Assam-based man to the tune of Rs 3.20 crore after posing as a senior IAS officer. Interestingly, the accused had even called the victim after duping him and challenged him that he could never be tracked, police said.
The Crime Branch which had busted the PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Yojna) and arrested its mastermind Sudipto Chat-terjee on January 17 was further investigating the case when it stumbled upon his another high-profile crime.
“During the search of his home in Kolkata it was found that there were few documents, pertaining to a Hospital project loan and jewellry in his premises which revealed his involvement in some other cases also. The documents were scrutinized and it appeared that someone from Assam has also been cheated by him,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.
Assam Police was contacted to get the relevant details. Assam police intimated that one businessman was cheated by a man posing as KM Acharya, a senior IAS officer. A case with CID, Guwahati was registered in this regard. The complainant of the case had received an SMS in the month of January 2012.
He expressed his eagerness by responding to the message and received a login-id and instruction to a surf website having URL www.gov4developement.co.in. He was further instructed to submit a detailed project report on [email protected].
Thereafter, he received a telephonic call in the month of March 2012 from a lady who counselled him and even made him talk to the person posing as KM Acharya, IAS. He submit-ted a detailed project report as instructed to him and received an interview call.
“In the month of August 2012, the complainant went to Howrah and handed over costly gift items, signed cheque books, ATM card along with his mobile handset to a person who posed himself as a junior officer, sent by KM Acharya. After winning over confidence of the victim, he was further induced to deposit Rs 3 crore in his bank account as a security amount for a loan amount of Rs 30 crore,” said Yadav.
The same were withdrawn by the accused through 13 different cheques. The complainant had even handed over a cash of Rs 16 lakh to a lady in the month of December 2012 at a famous shopping mall in Howrah along with an Iphone 4S mobile phone.
In January 2013, he came to realise that he was taken for a ride by few fraudsters as he had received a message from the person posing as K M Acharya that he had left India. On this, he approached Assam Police and got the case of cheating registered.
“Sudipta Chatterjee was thoroughly interrogated in this case, and he confessed his involvement. He was the mastermind of this cheating of 3.20 crore and from the proceeds of this cheating, he had bought two flats and jewelry worth Rs 1.5 crore, said Yadav.
It is worthwhile to mention that he had himself never met the complainant in person in this case and once the case was registered and Assam Police was looking for his hideout, he had even challenged the victim that he can never be tracked, he added. (PTI)
