By IANS
New Delhi : Three men posing as TV journalists, who reportedly trapped and extorted money from Jharkhand MPs, also duped countless other people while claiming to conduct sting operations to expose corruption, the police revealed Tuesday.
“The men – Rajiv Patel, Pankaj Gupta and Ratan Deep Gupta – don’t belong to any television channel. But they have rendered their services on contract basis to a well-known Hindi television channel for conducting sting operations,” a senior police official investigating the case told IANS.
He did not name the channel.
The trio was arrested from the North Avenue house of Jharkhand MP Rameshwar Oraon Sunday for allegedly threatening and blackmailing him and three other Jharkhand MPs after a so-called sting operation that sought to trap them receiving bribes. They had tried to extort Rs.500,000 from the MPs. The men are now in three days’ police remand.
The fourth accomplice and mastermind of the conspiracy, Sunil Tiwari, has not been arrested yet, the police said.
“The accused used to target and cheat people running gas agencies in the capital and its surrounding satellite towns. They would threaten the victims that they had video-recorded their wrongs and would telecast on a television news channel unless they were paid hush money. This way, they cheated people and extorted money from them,” the official said.
During interrogation, the three men revealed that they have been cheating and extorting money from people since 2004 and had decided to carry out sting operations on MPs, thinking that they could extort more money, he said.
The men were arrested after Oraon, a Congress MP, complained to the police about them.
“One of the accused called me posing as S.S. Rawat, a secretary in the ministry of tribal affairs. He said he will give me five percent commission if I helped him in getting a project worth Rs.18 crore (Rs.180 million),” Oraon told IANS.
“He first called me on Thursday and arranged a meeting with me on Sunday. I checked their authenticity with P.R Kyndiah (minister for tribal affairs), who informed me that those who approached me were not officials from his ministry. The men were fake.
“I then informed the police and they arrested the trio. Police also recovered some electronic gadgets that they had attached to their bodies. They said they were working with a private Hindi news channel,” he added.
Oraon also revealed to IANS that the men had earlier threatened three other MPs from Jharkhand – two from the Congress and one from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
Police sources said that the trio had been meeting the three Jharkhand MPs for some time posing as ministry officials and were demanding money.
The trio had earlier conducted sting operations for some TV channels and were operating from Mayur Vihar in east Delhi, police said.
Oraon, a former additional director general of police, said he had learnt that the men had approached at least 18 MPs and clandestinely video recorded them.
They demanded money from them and threatened to telecast their video clips on a well-known Hindi news channel.
Police have registered three cases of extortion, threatening and blackmailing against the four men.
Sources said the police had in the past received similar complaints about the extortions by the four men.