Confidence trickster

By T.V. Lakshminarayan

HE was a prominent resident of Faridabad. A son of the soil who had made it big in life. He had a castle-like house in the upmarket Sector 16 of the industrial town, a fleet of cars, that included three Mercedes Benz, a great social life that allowed him to mingle with the Who’s Who of the country and a job that could be anybody’s envy.

Ten years down the line his so- called employers have disowned him, his cars are lined up outside a police station in Faridabad and his house is virtually deserted.

Sunil Behl never imagined that the roller-coaster ride of his life would land him behind bars some day. Taken into police custody, along with his wife, Savita Behl, on May 15, Sunil Behl is facing charges on seven counts of fraud, deceit, impersonation and theft that run into several crores of rupees.

His alleged victims include several multi-crore companies, a proprietor of a powerful newspaper from South India who is also an MP, a gem company and builders. The Haryana Government, too, came very near to falling a prey to him but by then the bubble had burst.

Son of a respected Military Engineering Service officer, Sunil Behl had an upbringing that any middle-class family could be proud of. He did his Bachelors in Architecture from Panjab University in the early seventies and set out in the world to carve a career for himself. Brilliant he was. He soon set up his own practice and was doing good business. His establishment was named BAS Consultants India, Architect-Engineers. He later started another firm by the name of ADB Projects.

It was not long before the "genius" in him lured him into the bad game of getting rich quickly. Residents say Sunil Behl first acquired the "Big Man" image in 1993, when he acquired an imported Volvo car, and started flaunting it.

He claimed he had been appointed a junior officer in the Washington-based World Bank. His car had a UN number plate that reflected his position in the organisation. Within a couple of years, Sunil Behl claimed that he had been promoted to the post of Adviser and his new status was reflected in a black Mercedes Benz that he had acquired.

It was not long before he claimed that he had been promoted to the post of Vice-President, World Bank. His elevated status got him a white Mercedes Benz with a number plate that spelt UN 1. Visitors to his mansion recall that there was even a coronation memento which proved his credentials.

Keeping with his position, his social circle also got widened and his friends included the elite of society. His neigbours recall that a Union Minister, Secretaries to the Government of India, diplomats and top-ranking officials from the Haryana bureaucracy were his regular guests. House number 570 in Sector 16-A of Faridabad was looked at in awe by the locals. It was a house owned by a VVIP.

So much so that one day when the young and dynamic Deputy Commissioner of Faridabad, B.K. Panigrahi, received a call from Behl that the sewerage outside his house was choked, he pressed the fire brigade into service to get it cleared at once.

While appreciating the gesture of the state administration, Sunil Behl admonished the officials for being equipped with inferior equipment and advised them to seek a World Bank grant to upgrade their systems. Sunil Behl claimed he was in a position to give an outright grant of Rs 4 crore.

Panigrahi says, "We worked through the night to prepare the project report and submitted it to Sunil Behl". But then Behl pointed out that the project report was not in order and asked them to prepare another report. That was the end of it and for quite some time there was no word from the World Bank. It was then that Panigrahi smelt a rat and decided to check on the antecedents of Sunil Behl.

As luck would have it, the Deputy Commissioner received a complaint from a Delhi-based firm Sun City, part of the Essel Group, in April which claimed that Sunil Behl had duped them. They alleged that Behl had conveyed to them that Asian Development Bank had cleared two construction projects of the group and it was being delayed at the level of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Union Finance Ministry. The company claimed that when it pursued the case with the Finance Ministry, it found out that neither the government nor the ADB was aware of any project from the group.

The Deputy Commissioner got into the act and informed other agencies. Income Tax Deputy Director Ashok Mittal, Assistant Commissioner of Customs S.M. Akhtar and Senior Superintendent of Police Mohammed Akhil were among those who were alerted.

Inquiries at the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the Road Transport Authority, Delhi, revealed that Sunil Behl was not what he portrayed himself to be. He had nothing to do with the World Bank. His visiting card which showed him as Vice-President, in charge of South-East Asia, and his qualifications which said he was a Ph.D (Queensland), M.B.E. (Harvard University) were far from the truth.

Deputy Director (Investigation) of the Income Tax Department in Faridabad Ashok Mittal took the lead and with the help of Customs officials started keeping an eye on the movements of Behl.

Mittal with the help of Sun City officials entered the palatial house of Behl and confronted him with his massive wealth. A nonchalant Sunil Behl is understood to have told him that he had deposited Rs 65 lakh as income tax in Delhi and he was one of the highest tax payers in the country. Mittal got into action and went through the entire list of Income Tax assesses and found that Sunil Behl did not figure in the list. It was then that the Department of Income Tax, the Customs and the police conducted a joint raid on Sunil Behl’s house on May 14 and exposed him. It was also discovered later that the UN 1 number could be used only by the country head of the United Nations in India and the number plates in Behl’s cars were fake.

The search revealed that Sunil Behl had spent a fortune in doing up his house — even the bricks and wood in his house were imported. The crystal ware in his house alone was worth around Rs 70 lakh. Jewellery, including three kg of gold, was worth Rs 40 lakh, cash and fixed deposit receipts were worth Rs 54 lakh, emeralds worth Rs 18 lakh, documents of ownership of a farm house worth Rs 25 lakh and several bottles of imported liquor and perfumes worth a few lakhs.

The raids brought several aspects of Sunil Behl’s modus operandi into focus. It appears that having established his credentials, Sunil Behl thereafter went about his task of luring several business houses, who were facing financial trouble, with a promise of arranging loans from the World Bank and its associates. He would tell his victims that he could arrange loans from the private financing arm of Asian Development Bank (ADB). The promised loans, which ran into several crores (millions of dollars), came with a cost. The loanee had to pay Sunil Behl about 2 per cent of the required amount as processing fees. To eliminate any iota of doubt, the trickster took only cheques and that too in the name of ADB Projects. The cheque was deposited in an established transnational bank based in New Delhi.

In several cases, where Behl took the processing fee in advance, when the loans failed to materialise, the standard answer would be that the loans were stuck at India’s country office of the ADB or due to some international developments.

In one particular case, where Behl had convinced one of his victims that the President of India and the World Bank President would be going to Chennai to present the more than a million dollar soft loan, the reason for the last minute cancellation of the function was given as some international development that required the World Bank President to cancel his visit.

In some other cases, Behl cited the imposition of sanctions by the USA on India after it conducted the Pokhran nuclear blasts.

The correspondence with the victims were on the official letterhead of the World Bank. In one case, Behl had even given the President of India’s itinerary on the Rashtrapati Bhavan letterhead.

A source close to a crystal glass dealer, who was duped by Behl, recalls how the Behl couple drove into the dealer’s showroom in a gleaming Mercedes Benz car. Thereafter, Sunil Behl took out a bundle of Rs 500 notes and bought crystal ware worth Rs 5 lakh. The "small" deal paved the way for a much bigger deal and the dealer is still awaiting payment.

Some of his victims recall that Sunil Behl never took any chances. Even the tie he wore had the World Bank insignia. To prove his authenticity, Behl once asked one of the victims to himself call up the Manila headquarters of Asian Development Bank. When the respondent confirmed that it was indeed the ADB, Behl took the phone and spoke for about half-an-hour. It now transpires from the records that the call lasted not more than three seconds.

Investigating agencies have also got in their possession a report entitled Asia - World Economic Forum, 1997, Davos, wherein on the cover it was mentioned that Behl was a Senior Adviser, Division 11 of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the official name of the World Bank. Other publications with Behl’s name on it have also been unearthed. How he managed this is a mystery for even World Bank officials.

Sources who knew Behl recall that he was a good orator and could speak for hours on any economic subject — from the Indonesian crisis to the energy problems.

He used to frequent the USA and Hong Kong and was well versed with all the technical details of the World Bank. In all the fake World Bank correspondence he used to have with his victims, except for his own name, all other names of officials, telephone numbers, addresses and e-mail numbers were correct. The language used in the correspondence was written in an official style and in several cases it showed the World Bank President admonishing Behl for concentrating on India and ignoring other projects.

In several cases, Sunil Behl used to act on behalf of his wife.

As the infamous couple spend their time behind bars, their two sons, aged around seven and 14, are all alone in the palatial house and are being looked after by servants. Sunil Behl’s parents and relatives don’t have anything to do with him. They have nothing to be proud of about their once "illustrious" son.