India News | Movie Producer Among 4 Held for Posing as ED Officials, Extorting Money from People

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) Four men, including a movie producer, were arrested here for allegedly posing as Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials and an advocate and extorting money from several people, police said on Sunday.

The accused have been identified as Santosh Rai, a movie producer and resident of Shakarpur, Bhupender Singh Gusain, a resident of Dilshad Colony, Kuldeep Kumar and Sanjay, both residents of Yamuna Vihar, they said.

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A complaint was received from the ED wherein it stated that it had received several complaints in the past couple of days indicating that a man posing as an officer of the agency was sending fake notices to people and calling them up, the police said.

Preliminary inquiry revealed that the notices were sent in the name of Rajeev Singh, special regional officer, Central Region Office but no such person or designation existed, they said.

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During the investigation, it was found that the accused were using spoofing apps to send emails. They also made calls by spoofing landline numbers of different government offices to threaten the victims, a senior police officer said.

A trap was laid and Rai, who was posing as Rajeev Kumar Singh, and Gusain, who was posing as an advocate, were arrested near Parliament Street police station, where they had come to receive the extortion money from a victim, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Monika Bhardwaj said.

Later, two more people were arrested, she said.

It was found that one Afzal Ahmed hatched the conspiracy with Kumar, Sanjay and one Arjun Raghav, the police said.

Raghav contacted Rai and a cyber fraud expert, Aakash Chauhan, was also roped in. A notice was prepared by Rai and sent by Chauhan by spoofing the email id 'rs.ed@nic.in'. Rai also made the calls to the victims by spoofing numbers of ED and Delhi Police establishments, they said.

Rai is involved in several cases of cheating across India. He also produced a film using the money earned through such crimes. Gusain has been working in the chamber of a law firm in Patiala House Court since 2002, they added.

Sanjay ran a business of making projector screens in a house he had rented from one of the victims. His role was to keep a watch on the victim after he received the fake notice and calls and threaten him, the police said.

Raghav, Ahmed and Chauhan are on the run and efforts are being made to nab them, they said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)