NEW DELHI, Jan 28 - Two persons who allegedly used to pose as leaders of parties in power at Centre and extort money from Ministers, former and sitting MLAs, and ticket hopefuls in the name of party funds and promising them promotion were arrested here, police said.
The recent targets of Sanjay Tiwari � who in the past has worked as assistant to former Arunachal East MP Tapir Gao � were Jharkhand Minister Amar Kumar Bauri and H R Joshan, former Congress Punjab MLA, whom he promised ticket for the polls. Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police (Crime) said Tiwari claimed he also tried to extort money from Taniya Taga, Tacho and T Jeboha (Arunachal MLAs), Madan Mohan Mittal, a Punjab Minister; Vikas Munda, MLA, Jharkhand; among others.
Police said 40-year-old Tiwari used to work with his accomplice Gaurav Sharma (23) and they used to �advertise� on OLX to �hire� people for collecting money. They never went to collect money in person, they said.
Tiwari has hit on his targets by posing as BJP national secretary Ram Madhav; National General Secretary of BJP, Arun Singh; and senior RSS leader Bhaiyyaji Joshi, they said. He has also posed as Sonia Gandhi�s aide Madhavan, they said. Sharma used to act as Tiwari�s assistant, they said.
�Tiwari would pose as person of great clout of a national political party (BJP or Congress) or some Ministry and convince the victim he could arrange their ascendance in the party ranks or get their files or proposals cleared,� said the police. He said the claims are being verified.
During interrogation, it was found that Tiwari, who was arrested by Crime Branch last October in a similar case, is the mastermind of a racket, the JCP said.
�He would make intensive research about his targets, who had high aspirations and then lure them with temptations of giving tickets, greater role in party or other favours,� he said. Police also claimed he would usually pose as someone who is related to the ruling party.
Crime Branch received a complaint on January 24 from Sushant Kumar Mukherjee, PS to Amar Kumar Bauri, Minister for Revenue, Registration & Land, Jharkhand.
Bauri alleged that a man was calling him for the last three days posing as Ram Madhav and asking him to contribute funds for upcoming elections, said Yadav. �On verification from the office of Ram Madhav, it was ascertained that no such communication was ever made and it was clear that there are some people who are trying to cheat the Minister,� he added.
Tiwari, who is from Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh, is accused in 10 such cases and this is his 11th involvement.
On January 25, a specific input was received that Tiwari would come near ITO to meet his accomplices. A team led by ACP Sanjay Sehrawat laid a trap and at about 12.15 pm, Tiwari and Sharma were apprehended, said Yadav.
Tiwari would mainly target politicians from North East or tribal areas since he felt he could easily trap them in Delhi, police said. They used to keep a tab on the activities of politicians from these areas through their visits to respective State Bhawans and it is being investigated how he used to lay their hands on the details.
�The victims believed him, got entrapped and paid him huge amounts in the garb of party donations or election funds,� he said. He gained confidence to extort money from politicians while he was working as a personal assistant to an MP from Arunachal Pradesh where he learnt how the system worked and from there he devised this modus operandi, said the officer.
Tiwari told police he extorted Rs 50,000 from Pramila Rani Brahma of Assam by impersonating personal assistant of a secretary in the Ministry of DONER (Development of North Eastern Region).
He also allegedly cheated Bhika Sole of Nagaland BJP of Rs 50,000 by posing as personal assistant to a national general secretary of the party on the pretext of party funds, police said.
Police said his �business� was affected in the wake of demonetisation.
It has also been found that he would destroy the phones and SIM cards within a month of using them to extort money, police said. It needs to be verified whether he procured the SIM cards using fake IDs, police said. � PTI
