New Delhi: Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing has arrested a 49-year-old man, who duped more than six people to the tune of Rs 15 crore on pretext of providing work order from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) for the transportation of Covid vaccines to different states.
The accused has been identified as Umesh Batra, who impersonated a MoHFW officer.
“Six complaints were received in which the complainants were cheated of a total amount of Rs 15 crore on pretext of providing work order for transportation of Covid vaccines,” said M.I. Haider, Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW).
“In all complaints, the victims described the same modus operandi and levelled allegations against Batra. The victims claimed that they were made to sit inside the conference room of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in order to execute the work order for transportation of Covid vaccines, which were later on found to be fake,” said Haider.
A case was registered and the investigation revealed that in May 2021, the accused including Batra came in contact with the complainants and offered that they could manage the work order from the MoHFW for transportation of Covid vaccines.
“To gain the trust of the complainants, they brought the victims to the MoHFW. The accused impersonated themselves as MoHFW officers and obtained signatures of the complainants on forged work orders. In lieu of such forged work orders, they received Rs 15 crore from the complainants,” said the DCP.
Bank accounts and other details of the alleged persons were scrutinised and analysed, revealing a huge cash deposit in the accounts of the alleged persons.
Earlier, during investigation, five accused Harmenn Sabherwal, Govind Tulshyan, Diprana Tiwari, Trilok Singh and Mrityunjoy Roy were arrested in multiple raids in August-September, however, Batra was absconding.
“As he was evading arrest, a proclamation under section 82 Code of Criminal Procedure was issued against him by the court. On December 21, Batra surrendered before the court and he was arrested with the permission from the court,” said the official.
Batra used to impersonate himself as an officer of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and used to sit in a conference room.
“During interrogation, Batra disclosed that his other accomplices Vinod and Vinay also used to impersonate themselves as MoHFW officers and they also used to sit in the conference room of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,” said the official.
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