NGO sends out fake PMO mail

PSUs receive dubious messages from 'Amit Shah's office' as well

A man running an NGO has been arrested for allegedly faxing endorsement letters to some public sector undertakings (PSUs) with the name and address of the offices of the Prime Minister and BJP president Amit Shah.

Through the letters, 50-year-old Yashpal Singh Tomar was seeking a sponsorship for a talent competition organised by his NGO Global Need Foundation that promotes art and science developments in youth and children, police said on Monday.

Tomar would allegedly change the settings of his own fax machine to manipulate the letter sender’s name and address to that of the PMO or Shah’s office.

Police said the fraud was reported by one of the PSUs NTPC Limited which had received an endorsement letter purportedly from the PMO.

Suspicious, NTPC officials called up the PMO to confirm the authenticity of the letter.

A case was registered with Delhi Police and Crime Branch took up the investigations.
It was learnt that some other PSUs like ONGC and Oil India Limited too had received similar letters.

The sender was tracked down to Shahdara in east Delhi and picked up for questioning.

“Initially, he tried to mislead us by claiming that he had sent the fax to BJP office from where it must have been sent to the concerned offices. He said he had received the confirmation of the fax sent to the BJP office, but could not produce the acknowledgement receipt. He then broke down and confessed to the crime,” said police in a release.

Within five years of starting the NGO in 2000, Tomar began a competition Rajiv Gandhi National Talent Competition for drawing posters and similar activities.
The accused used to write to various PSUs to sponsor the contest and was able to successfully organise the contest every year till 2013.

But of late, the NGO was falling short of funds.

“He felt that he could get sponsorship easily if the letter was shown to have been sent from the PMO,” said police.

The fax machine and the laptop used in the crime, and some other incriminating documents, have been recovered from the MBA accused, said police.