Suspended cop turns conman

Chandra Bhushan Singh, a constable with Bihar police, was suspended last year in a fraud case. Nevertheless, he “promoted” himself, donned the uniform of an assistant sub-inspector and duped more than 10 businessman at several districts in Bihar during his suspension period.

The police who have been searching for him were reminded of Mithilesh Srivastava, the notorious conman from Siwan, known (in)famously as Natwar Lal who carried out large-scale frauds by duping traders through forged cheques and drafts.

Tall, dark and handsome, 38-year-old Chandra Bhushan too adopted a similar modus operandi. Attired in a neat khakhi uniform that had a badge of assistant sub-inspector and with an expensive sunglass, he always took care about his looks and appearance and moved around with a smart young woman, whom he introduced to everyone as his wife. He has so far frequently visited shopping malls, showrooms of branded goods and jewellery shops from where he has purchased expensive ornaments. He introduced himself as an ASI posted at a local police station. Purchased goods and paid through cheque. Nobody doubted him because of his mannerisms. But the fraud came to light once the cheques started to bounce.

The latest victim was K P Gupta, owner of Alankar Jewellers in Vaishali. Chandra Bhushan and his “wife” visited the jewellery shop and purchased gold ornaments .  Gupta did not doubt the “couple” and Bhushan signed a cheque of Rs 90,000 before taking away the jewellery. But once the cheque bounced, he reached the police station concerned, only to be told that no ASI named Chandra Bhushan had ever worked there. When the matter reached senior police officials, the CCTV footage was examined and only then the constable-turned conman was identified.  More complaints of duping against the suspended cop started pouring in. After the bank gave his permanent address, the police raided his ancestral house in Muzaffarpur but could not find anyone except his genuine wife who has never ventured out of the locality.