A man impersonating an IAS officer, Saurabh Singh, was arrested on September 15 from Lucknow for allegedly duping vendors of over Rs 2 crore nationwide under the pretense of the Centre’s Rashtriya Gramin Saksharta Mission (RGSM) scheme, police said on Monday.
Saurabh, an office bearer of a fake trust, was caught following extensive surveillance and raids in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. His associates, Ratnakar alias Karunakar Upadhyay and Anita Upadhyay, were arrested earlier in July.
According to Additional Commissioner of Police Amrutha Guguloth of the Economic Offences Wing, the accused created a trust and a website mimicking a government scheme, published fake tenders, and used forged letterheads falsely claiming RGSM was “a Government of India undertaking.”
They posed as IAS officers to gain vendors’ trust and signed agreements for supplying uniforms for underprivileged schoolchildren, the officer added.
After securing supplies, the accused failed to make payments and further manipulated vendors into depositing large sums as commissions, earnest money, and stamp duty. One complainant alone was cheated of uniforms worth several crores and forced to pay about Rs 2 crore as commission for tender allotment.
Police recovered around 45,000 uniforms valued at Rs 1.5 crore, Rs 2.79 lakh cash, a gold chain, a gold ring, and a car purchased from the scam proceeds. Two flats acquired by the accused have also been identified for attachment.
Ratnakar has a criminal history involving over 10 cases, including cheating, forgery, and rape in Uttar Pradesh. Anita, the trust’s head, was an authorized signatory of RGSM accounts and a beneficiary of siphoned funds. Saurabh, previously absconding, is also facing two cases in Ayodhya under the Gangsters Act and forgery charges.
Six cases have been registered against the accused in Delhi, with similar cases pending in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh.
