JOIN USA 35-year-old man has been arrested for impersonating a Union Minister’s additional private secretary to dupe people, including some MPs and MLAs, police said on Thursday.
Sanjay Tiwari, who lives alone in a rented accommodation at Mayur Vihar Phase I and runs two news portals – Tiranga News and Ujala News, has a history of cheating as he was arrested seven times earlier.
“Investigation was taken up by crime branch’s special investigation team after we received a complaint that an impostor had approached several MLAs of north-eastern region,” said Sanjay Kumar Jain, deputy commissioner of police (crime and railways).
A thorough probe found that Sanjay was involved and a trap was laid near his residence on Tuesday.
“He was apprehended when he was travelling in a Honda City car,” Jain added. Subsequently, his associate Rattan Deep Gupta, 29, of Trilokpuri, was also apprehended.
On sustained interrogation, Sanjay confessed that he had impersonated a Union Minister’s additional private secretary and had contacted two MLAs in April. He had promised to assist them in processing and fast tracking of their requests for Central monetary grants from the ministry.
Speed money
He had also demanded “speed money” to help them to get quicker grants.
“The MLAs however got suspicious over Sanjay’s conduct and made their own enquiries. When they contacted the real additional private secretary, they realised that the conman was trying to dupe them,” Jain said.
Sanjay was earlier arrested in 2007, when he and his associates approached two MPs posing to be a minister’s personal secretary and staff. They had demanded money from them to get funds released.
In 2005 and 2007, Sanjay and his associates posed as news reporters to extort money from drivers of three mini-trucks carrying LPG cylinders.
They had threatened the drivers that if they did not pay up, they would implicate them in false cases of LPG theft from cylinders.