Engineer con posed as judge to avoid toll fee, arrested

An engineer who was arrested on Sunday for conning at least 40 people by posing to be a senior judge and an IAS officer, initially made a judge’s fake ID card just to avoid paying toll, police said Thursday. According to the confessions of the accused, he drew “inspiration” from his father’s friend who is a judge and does not pay toll.

Kedarnath Sagar Sharma (29) posed as a senior civil judge from Telangana and started conning people in Delhi and Gurugram by promising them government jobs, flats and admissions in central government-run schools, using his “influence”.

Sharma, who hails from Hyderabad and moved to Gurugram in March this year, was assisted in his cons by a Delhi resident identified as Vijender Singh. The 31-year-old was arrested on Monday.

“During questioning, Sharma said that one of his friend’s father was a judge in Telangana and he noticed that he did not pay at toll booths. In May, he made a fake ID card of a judge using his laptop and flashed it to the police every time he was stopped for checking (in Gurugram),” assistant sub-inspector Trilok Chand, who is the investigating officer in the case, said.

Police said that the accused, who took Rs 3-5 lakh as assurance for getting government jobs and flats, used this fake ID card to stay at the PWD Rest House for more than 10 days, starting May 2.

“On Wednesday, police sent a notice to the PWD Rest House asking them on what basis they allowed the accused to stay there and sought details of his stay. We are yet to receive a reply,” Chand said.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the police filed a separate FIR against the accused based on the complaint filed by a Delhi woman with whom he was reportedly in a relationship. According to the FIR filed at the Janakpuri Police Station in Delhi, Sharma took about Rs 4 lakh from the woman promising to help her brother get a job in the Indian navy.

“The woman told police that she had met the accused through an online dating application about one-and-a-half-month back. The accused had promised to marry the woman and her parents had come to his flat in Gurugram to meet him. She had even gone with him on vacation to Mumbai and Goa,” he said.

Sharma had even bought a second-hand BMW 5 series car, with the registration plate of a senior judge, to add a semblance of believability to his con. The second hand luxury car, embossed with fake seals, appointment letters and identity card, were seized on Sunday.

Sharma, who hails from Hyderabad, was arrested on Sunday after one of the men he took money from promising him a flat under Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category lodged a complaint. An FIR was filed under sector 420 (cheating), 170 (personating a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, at Sector 14 Police Station against the accused for cheating a man of Rs 4 lakh.

Sharma, a BTech in computer engineering from a college in Hyderabad in 2011, had worked with at least two companies, one in Hyderabad and another in Mumbai before he moved to Gurugram in March this year.

First Published: Sep 28, 2018 05:31 IST