By IANS,
Agra : A man who was allegedly driving around this city of the Taj Mahal in a car with fake UN number plates was taken into custody Wednesday by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).
A police team was following the movements of Deepanshu Chakrovarty, who claimed to be a neuro-surgeon and a representative of the UN, for the past two months and had put his phone under surveillance, said a senior official.
Since Chakrovarty was moving around the city including the cantonment area in his car with a UN number plate (11-UN-8) and a blue beacon light, the ATS got suspicious after the Mumbai terror attacks and began following him.
“His credentials were checked and all his claims drew blank,” said a police official.
A large number of letterheads of various organisations, forged cheques, rubber stamps, seals, VIP parking passes, UN visiting cards, vehicle permits, blank felicitation certificates from the president and prime minister’s offices were seized from him, the police claimed.
“For over a year this man, presenting himself as a paediatric neuro-surgeon, had taken so many people, rather the whole city of Agra, for a ride with his tall promises and assurances of world recognition to so many artistes and social activists and was seen regularly at every event and programme,” recalled health activist Shivani Chaturvedi, who called herself a “victim of his sweet talk”.
“He was first introduced by then district magistrate Mukesh Meshram who also fell for his charm,” she added.
Chakrovarty was living as a paying guest at the house of Keshav Talegaonkar, one of Agra’s leading classical musicians.
He had promised a Rs.20 million sponsorship for the forthcoming Taj Mahotsava and Rs.2 million for an institute for Talegaonkar.