Conman arrested for cheating by posing as CBI officer

New Delhi: Posing as CBI inspector, he used to extort money from businessmen but he soon ran out of luck and was caught in a trap laid by the police. Rajdeep Pandey alias Luv Kumar Pandey, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kanshi Ram Nagar district, was arrested for demanding Rs five lakh from complainant Sheetal Prasad and his friend, police said on Saturday.

Pandey was also allegedly involved in five such cases, including one under Gangster Act, in Badayun district of Uttar Pradesh. "After his interrogation, police arrested 39-year-old Anurag Kalantri, a computer shop owner of Uttar Pradesh's Kashganj, for helping Pandey in preparing fake identity cards and vote identity cards," said Ajay Chaudhry, Addl CP, South East district, adding Rs 4.65 lakh, a computer, six mobile phones, voter-id and identity card of a CBI official were seized from them.

According to police, a dealer of second hand autorickshaw, Prasad, said that he had sold one of the vehicle to one Naresh Chandra about a year ago. Chandra, alongwith Pandey, came to his shop and demanded his money back as the autorickshaw was not working properly. But when Prasad expressed his inability, Chandra introduced him to Pandey as CBI official, who threatened to implicate him in false case if he did not return the money immediately, police said.

Fearing this, he returned the money but remained in his contact. He introduced Pandey to one Raju Sawant, who also deals in autorickshaws and was having some problem with a financiers.

"The accused promised to help him and asked him to write a complaint and also demanded Rs five lakh for the job. For this, Pandey took Rs 90,000 and demanded Rs 20,000 more," they said. Chandra, however, became suspicious and informed police.

Police then laid a trap and sent Chandra with Rs 20,000 with marked currency notes and when Pandey was taking the money, he was apprehended. He tried to influence the police saying he was a CBI official and even showed his identity card. But when he was confronted and searched, police recovered Id-cards in the name of Rajdeep and also an ATM card.

Later, he confessed to having a fake identity card. During interrogation, he said that he was involved with Anurag Kolantri in getting the forged ID cards.