Nagpur city police’s crime branch has arrested Roshan Singh, alias Piyush Keshav Singh, from Nalasopara (East), Mumbai, in connection with a massive Rs 76 lakh fraud targeting a Nagpur-based school textbook publisher. The accused, who has over 30 criminal cases against him, including murder and assault, orchestrated an elaborate racket using fake book agencies under forged identities.
The scam was uncovered after a year-long investigation revealed that Singh and his associates set up bogus bookshops, entering commission-based agreements with the victim publisher to procure large quantities of textbooks. Instead of paying, Singh diverted the stock to black markets and other illegal distribution channels across Maharashtra.
According to Inspector Ravindra Naikwad, the accused routinely changed addresses, phone numbers, and documentation to evade law enforcement. “They would clear the stock by selling books at discounted prices in unauthorized markets, then shut down agencies and disappear,” he explained.
The complaint was initially filed in 2024 but remained unresolved for months due to the sophisticated methods employed by the perpetrators to erase their trails. Singh’s arrest followed intelligence inputs and surveillance efforts. He is currently in police custody for interrogation, and more arrests are anticipated as investigations point to a wider nexus involving multiple cities including Mumbai, Mira Bhayandar, and Vasai-Virar.
Police are now working with other publishers to track down the flow of textbooks and recover losses. The crime branch suspects that some textbooks were even resold to schools through fake channels.
