Inter-state gang busted, member held for impersonation

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An inter-state gang of thugs was busted with the arrest of one member who impersonated senior government officials of different states and extorted money from contractors and businessmen, police said Sunday. Acting on a tip-off that a Bihar-based criminal was living in Gadabasa area of Bagbera police station with fake identity and impersonating senior officials of different states and extorting businessmen a police team was constituted to conduct raid and apprehend the culprits, Senior Superintendent of Police, Anoop Birtharay said.

Addressing a press conference here, Birtharay, who was accompanied by the Superintendent of Police (City) Prabhat Kumar, said the police team conducted raid in Gadabasa on Saturday and arrested one Ranjan Kumar Mishra, a native of Sindhia Ghat of Gaya in Bihar. Birtharay said Ranjan had collected Rs 25 lakh from two Bhopal-based contractors recently. Birtharay said the gang members used to supply mobile numbers and other personal details of big businessmen, contractors and engineers to Ranjan.

Ranjan would then call them up, identifying himself as senior government officials and extract huge sums from them. The gang members duped the businessmen by asking them to transfer money online to different accounts, he said adding that police has identified some gang members involved in the racket including one Rakesh Rai of Sitamarhi, Bihar. Police has begun investigation and a team was being sent to different locations to apprehend the culprits, he said.

Cases against Ranjan and his accomplices were registered in various states including Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, while cases were pending against them in Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi and Shahjanhapur in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Police recovered Rs 7.16 lakh cash, land document worth Rs 11.50 lakh, car, two-wheeler, four fake identity cards, 11 mobile phones, five SIM cards, two ATM cards and two bank passbooks from Ranjan, Birtharay added. Ranjan also confessed to have extracted Rs 2 crore during the past 18 months.