GUWAHATI: In a covert operation, an Assam Police team raided remote areas of Gorakhpur and Basti districts of Uttar Pradesh last Thursday and apprehended five persons who confessed to have fraudulently withdrawn money from the Assam Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
The team, comprising seven police officers, and led by Rosie Kalita, the SP of the Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell, apprehended Mohammad Arif, Mohammad Asif, Lalji, Sarvesh Rao, and Ravindra Kumar. All five, who belong to Uttar Pradesh, were brought to Guwahati.
During investigation, it was found that some amount of money was fraudulently withdrawn by cheques in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh by forging the cheques and signatures of the Assam chief minister.
An official statement issued here on Monday informed that during interrogation, the arrested persons confessed to withdrawing very less amounts from the fund, besides admitting that they had committed similar crimes in other states as well.
“They were forwarded to a special court today and brought on police remand for 10 days,” Kalita told reporters here on Monday.
The police team had launched the operation after the Chief Minister’s Office here detected some unusual transactions in the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund on August 10, 2020. The CMO Uttar Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh Police and CMO Assam supported the operation.