Father-son duo arrested for impersonating ED, CBI officers

Gurugram, May 12 (IANS) The Gurugram police have arrested a father and son duo and also booked the accused's wives for allegedly impersonating officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and attempting to extort Rs 4 crore from the Haryana BJP spokesperson, who was also the Deputy Major of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), officials said on Thursday.

The accused had also sent fake summons with fake attestation of the ED director to extort money from the complainant.

The accused has been identified as Yashpal Arora, his wife Saroj Arora, son Rahul Arora and his wife Kanchan Arora, all residents of New Colony in Gurugram. A private person named Jitender Kumar, who was also involved in the act, has also been booked.

The complainant, Yashpal Batra, a resident of Pratap Nagar in Gurugram, said he came to know that a false application was moved by a person named Rajender Pathak in November 2021 against him, claiming that numerous properties worth Rs 363 crore were accumulated by Batra by illegal means.

"A few days later, Pathak came to me and disclosed that the application was moved at the instance of the accused persons, Yashpal Arora, Rahul Arora, Saroj Arora and Kanchan Arora, who claimed to be senior officers in the CBI and ED. They also threatened me if an amount of Rs 4 crore is not given to them, they will file an FIR against me and my entire family," Batra told the police.

"Sacred, I was ready to pay the amount, but I made a condition to arrange a meeting with the remaining persons just to verify they really worked with the CBI and ED. Pathak then showed me their visiting cards and photocopies of their identity cards of ED and CBI," Batra said in his complaint.

A meeting was fixed and Batra met the father-son duo in their car, with their wives standing outside.

"The duo showed their identity cards and demanded Rs 4 crore for withdrawal of the application moved by Pathak. They told me they received complaints against me regarding properties and they are investigating the matter on behalf of ED and CBI. They also disclosed to me that A.K. Singh and Gaurav Gupta are their senior officers," he said.

"I told them that I don't have such a big amount, and requested to pay in instalments," he added.

The complainant had reportedly delivered an amount of Rs 10 lakh to the private person, Jitender Kumar, as instructed by the accused.

Later, the complaint came to know that the culprits did not work with CBI or ED, and had duped several people posing as fake officials just to extort money.

"Based on the complaint, the police laid a trap and caught Jitender Kumar red-handed while accepting Rs 2 lakh from the complainant. The police arrested Yashpal Arora, the mastermind behind the crime, and his son from their office on Thursday," Preet Pal Sangwan, ACP (crime), said.