THE Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Friday arrested two more persons in a multi-core scam in which a Madhya Pradesh-based contractor duped of Rs 9.2 crore. (Representational Image)
THE Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Friday arrested two more persons in a multi-core scam in which a Madhya Pradesh-based contractor duped of Rs 9.2 crore. This takes the total of arrests in the scam to nine.
The accused allegedly offered businessman Manjeet Singh Bhatia a fake tender, falsely claiming that it was floated by the UP animal husbandry department, police said.
Tripuresh Pandey alias Rinku and Sachin Verma from Patrakarpuram in Gomti Nagar area of Lucknow were arrested on Friday after a tip-off. Tripuresh hails from Gorakhpur while Sachin lives in Lucknow, police said.
Police claimed to have recovered Rs 2,600, two cellphones and cheque book of the bank account allegedly used in the fraud.
Police said Sachin Verma was a close associate of the prime accused Ashish Rai, who is presently in judicial custody.
“Sachin alleged that in 2018 Ashish contacted and informed him that he wanted to use a registered firm and its bank account to transfer a large sum of money collected through fraud. Sachin then he contacted his friend Tripuresh Pandey and asked him to come Lucknow. Sachin rented out to Pandey the first floor of his jewellery shop at Gomti Nagar,” said police.
“Sachin helped Pandey to open a firm named R K Traders in his name with the help of a chartered accountant. They also opened an account in a nationalised bank in the name of the firm – R K Traders,” added police.
“Sachin also told the police that Ashish asked Manjeet Singh to transfer money into the bank account. Between September and October in 2018, Rs 72.12 lakh was transferred by Manjeet Singh. Sachin and Tripuresh took his share and handed over 80 per cent of the money to Ashish,” said a police officer adding that Sachin transferred Rs 13 lakh from the account of firm RK Traders to his own account.
On June 14, the STF arrested seven persons of the gang for allegedly duping Manjeet Singh on June 14.